Abstract
This paper seeks to understand the destruction of European Jewry, known as the “Final Solution,” in light of the inevitable and palpable encounter with the two monsters of modernity: Nazi ideology and modern bureaucracy. Nazi Ideology recruited science, communications. and technology – that had reached a peak towards the middle of the twentieth century – to its ranks, while bureaucracy allowed for transmission of functions and assignments among cold, anonymous, matter-of-fact clerks, thanks to new technologies that offered officials refuge under the general heading of “doing one’s job.” Millions of people were murdered and millions more sent to battlefronts with virtually no chance of survival, yet no one accepted full responsibility for his actions. A monstrous system set the entire world ablaze between 1933 and 1945, burning billions of people, remaining concealed behind the gray façade of the bureaucrat, who apparently exerts little discretion except in performing his job with the rational efficiency of a clerk who aspires to progress up the ladder of success in the bureaucratic system he serves. This clerical system left very few guilty consciences over any of the details it entailed. After all, no single person was responsible for the deaths of over 50 million people in World War II, just as no single person was responsible for the extermination of six million European Jews. Everyone performed “only” one task: One “only” gathered the Jews together, another “only” planned the gas trucks, a third “only” manufactured it.
Presenters
Lily ZamirCenter for Women and Gender Studies, The Academic David Yellin College of Education
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Final Solution, Bureaucracy, Anonymous Processes, Industrialized Killing, Totalitarian Regime, Nazi
