I know the material reasons for the rise of fascism. I also think another reason - which doesn’t get talked about as much because it’s embarrassing that humans can be that naive - is that when you are financially comfortable but bored, abstract cruelty can give you a sense of purpose.
On 29 April 1945, eighty years ago today, US soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration camp. Hundreds of thousands of people were imprisoned there during the nazi era. They were at the mercy of the arbitrary behaviour of the guards and were harassed, abused and tortured. Tens of thousands did not survive their imprisonment. Dachau is a small town roughly 20 km to the north of Munich. The camp was built in 1933, the first of the nazi concentration camps.
The GIs found more than 30,000 people in the completely overcrowded camp, which was originally built for 6,000 prisoners. The prisoners were emaciated and exhausted, many suffering from disease. Typhus and dysentery were rampant in the camp. In the newspapers and on the radio, on tv, today we read and watch and listen to documentaries and eye witness reports and commentaries of this day. This is an excerpt from The Liberation of Dachau by Marguarite Higgins, New York Herald Tribune on May 1st, 1945:
There was not a soul in the yard when the gate was opened. As we learned later, the prisoners themselves had taken over control of their enclosure the night before, refusing to obey any further orders from the German guards, who had retreated to the outside. The prisoners maintained strict discipline among themselves, remaining close to their barracks so as not to give the S.S. men an excuse for mass murder.
But the minute the two of us entered, a jangled barrage of “Are you Americans?” in about 16 languages came from the barracks 200 yards from the gate. An affirmative nod caused pandemonium.
Tattered, emaciated men weeping, yelling and shouting “Long live America!” swept toward the gate in a mob. Those who could not walk limped or crawled.
Yesterday, I walked in a crowd of 20 people for three hours through the center of the city we live in, following a young man with a long beard and many tattoos who guided us from one house, street corner, park to the next, where he carefully pointed out memorial sites and their significance in today's fight against fascims. Because fight we must.
Meanwhile, the garden provides solace.
Thank you, Sabine. Always.
ReplyDeleteI know it happened. But my mind cannot fully sit with the horror. It destroys me. That humans can be so inhumane. As for abstract cruelty, there’s a lot of that these days. It’s as if people believe if it’s not happening to me, I don’t have to care that it’s happening. Someone argued the other day that to care about horrors that befall others to whom you have no connection is to give yourself airs of being morally superior. I didn’t know how to respond. I wondered about the markers of sociopathy. Because doesn’t our very humanness connect us?
ReplyDeleteCasual cruelty always shocks me, and yet I have had the urge to kill people, so I know that cruelty exists within me as well. What does it take for that urge to rise to the surface? Acceptance? Social norms? Force? Fear, probably. Fear is such a big motivator for humans. I remember years ago, grade seven, when a boy was being picked on and bullied in my art class. I didn't speak up, didn't try to stop it, I was just thankful it wasn't me that was being bullied. I've grown since then, but still feel shame that I didn't speak up then.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it about humans that make us so capable of extreme cruelty and enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteCodex: I think that trying to understand this on an intellectual or philosophical level is futile. As is comparing different countries. It's the reason that I completely disagree with Okonga; boredom leading to cruelty is nonsense and I have come across this new meme in the last few years. 10% of the population is psychopathic.
ReplyDeleteThank you for continuing to educate, Sabine.