d Education and a profession are sometimes thought to make people less inclined to such destructiveness. Some note with surprise and wonder that the Einsatzgruppen included highly qualified academics, ministerial officials, lawyers, and even a Protestant minister and an opera singer. In contrast, many of the SS auxiliaries were illiterate. People from higher socioeconomic classes may be less likely to engage in criminal murder, both because they can gain advantages by socially acceptable means and because they are more socialized into traditional rules and values. But this would make no difference in an ideologically based mass murder, especially when the fulfillment of psychological needs and “higher ideals” as well as the usual rewards of education and professional life – prestige, recognition, status, money – are offered for participation in repression, murder, and ultimately genocide.
e This book is a fictionalized account of actual events, based on evidence from many sources, including interviews with former camp inmates and material at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial and museum in Jerusalem.
f In the account that follows I summarize and recast information provided by Lifton, adding my own interpretions; for example, it is I who infer that the doctors made a speedy adjustment to the camp, suggest motives for the noncommissioned officers’ conversations with Hoess, and so on.
g Personality refers to the enduring characteristics of individuals that differentiate them from others. I define personality broadly to include, for example, ideological beliefs, because they are important and usually enduring characteristics.
h I am stressing the importance of separation and differentation from the group not to advocate an emphasis on the self and its needs and interests. To fulfill ideals such as concern about other human beings, connection, and community (see Part IV), people must develop strong separate identities so that they are capable of standing apart, of independent moral judgment, and if necessary of opposition to the group.
11 The behavior and psychology of bystanders and victims
The role of bystanders
The passivity of German bystanders
Germans accepted, supported, and participated in the increasing persecution of Jews. Resistance and public attempts to help were rare. Bystanders too were influenced by difficult life conditions, German culture, and the resulting psychological processes and motives. These gave them a shared societal tilt with perpetrators. Perpetrators probably differed from bystanders in personality and initial values. Some bystanders may have lacked opportunity and were unable to join organizations that became part of the destruction machinery. Some Germans who strongly opposed the Nazis were destroyed by them.
The practice by the Nazi state of “legal” persecution, of creating new laws to disenfranchise and persecute Jews, contributed to the passivity of Germans (and maybe outsiders). Germans value law and order; the new laws helped create new standards of acceptable conduct. They must have helped Germans to distance themselves from the Jews.
The Germans’ positive feelings for Hitler also shaped their attitude toward anti-Jewish actions. According to Fritz Heider’s balance theory and other theories of cognitive consistency, when attitudes are in imbalance, the motivation will arise to bring them into balance.1 If a person likes Hitler, given Hitler’s hatred of Jews, there is imbalance if that person likes Jews. To create balance, either the attitude toward Hitler or the attitude toward Jews has to change. In Nazi Germany, all the pressures acting on this person would favor Hitler over the Jews.a
Deviation and resistance were dangerous, but not impossible. Some initially refused to comply with boycotts. Over time group norms changed, at least partly because cooperation was so common and resistance so unusual. Hjalmar Schacht, Hitler’s economic minister until 1937, exercised some influence by steadily warning against an extreme anti-Jewish policy – apparently because of his fear of repercussions abroad.
In the few known instances where Nazi officials or SS officers expressed disagreement with anti-Jewish actions or refused to participate, nothing happened to them.2 For example, Sturmbannführer Hartl was not punished when he refused to take over an Einsatzkommando in Russia; Generalkommissar Kuber was not punished when he frustrated a killing operation against German Jews. When a Nazi doctor requested transfer out of the euthanasia program, he was simply reassigned.
Even limited noncompliance by German officials saved lives. Georg Druckner, a high German official in Denmark, warned the Danish authorities about the impending deportation of the Jews and delayed execution of the order, allowing the Danish people to organize the escape of 6,500 Danish Jews to Sweden.3 As I have noted, protests brought the euthanasia program to an end, at least formally.
Protest, resistance, and noncompliance at an early stage might have been highly effective. Hitler was concerned about popular resistance and feared the churches. Instead, the population often acted against Jews in anticipation of Nazi measures. Businesses often fired Jewish employees even before the laws required it.4 The monolithic culture and totalitarian system eliminated public discussion and protest that would have called attention to anti-Nazi values and conceptions of reality. A breakdown of uniformity and the expression of contrary views might have influenced bystanders not committed to Nazi ideology.
Bystanders and perpetrators in Nazi Europe
The percentage of the Jewish population killed in different European countries varied greatly. In countries occupied by Germany or allied to it, the behavior of the population, leaders, and institutions (the churches, the government) greatly affected the fate of the Jews. Local resistance decreased the effectiveness of steps leading to deportation in territories occupied by Germany (the identification of Jews; stripping them of rights, property, and jobs; and their segregation) and of Germany’s success in persuading its allies to deport their Jewish populations.
Some areas the Germans conquered were incorporated into the Greater German Reich. Other areas were
