Nazi degradation of prisoners functioned to protect perpetrators from psychological distress

Evidence

Primo Levi, Italian novelist and concentration camp survivor, writes about the same processes when describing his personal experience. According to Levi, the degradation imposed on the prisoners was not a matter of cruelty, but a necessary process: for those operating the gas chambers not to be overwhelmed by distress, victims had to be reduced to sub-human objects beforehand (Levi, 1987). — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2097

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the psychology of perpetrator moral disengagement discussed in ‘On Sacrifice’ and related reading on collective violence. — connects to: Rational calculations during the Nazi era carried hidden psychological costs — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 455; Nazi guards could sincerely punish victims for conditions the guards themselves created — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 363
• SEED: Possible article angle: the perverse ‘necessity’ perpetrators construct — degradation as psychological self-protection rather than mere cruelty.