Neither science nor the churches mounted effective resistance to Nazi inhumanity

Evidence

At best, the cult of rationality, institutionalized as modern science, proved impotent to prevent the state from turning into organized crime; at worst, it proved instrumental in bringing the transformation about. Its rivals, however, did not earn a higher score either. In their silence German academics had plenty of companions. Most conspicuously, they were joined by the Churches – all of them. Silence in the face of the organized inhumanity was the only item on which the Churches, so often at loggerheads, found themselves in agreement. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 319

Categorization

• XREF: Feeds the reader’s question of what structural forces fail as safeguards — extends the scaffolding theory of how hegemonic institutions enable exclusion by silence. — connects to: Science’s moral silence surfaced when Auschwitz corpse disposal became a medical problem — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 112; German scientists eagerly co-operated with the Nazi racial project — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 317; Scientific antisemitism was layered in façade institutions hiding the extermination authority — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 912 (+2 more)

Related

• Science’s moral silence surfaced when Auschwitz corpse disposal became a medical problem (similarity 0.84)
• Elite silence follows the ideal of value-free rational professionalism (similarity 0.79)
• German scientists eagerly co-operated with the Nazi racial project (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Science’s value-freedom dismantled normative barriers to genocidal co-operation #expands (0.90) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 315
• The Holocaust required neutralizing popular attitudes, not mobilizing them #complicates (0.74) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 522
• Scientific antisemitism was layered in façade institutions hiding the extermination authority #complicates (0.72) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 912