Author Dan McMillan claims that his book 'How Could This Happen: Explaining the Holocaust' is the first to directly and solely focus on why the Holocaust occurred. I find that hard to believe, but I do not have direct evidence to the contrary. So much has been written on the Holocaust, much of it factual accountings of the horrors. I have often wondered myself exactly why this happened, the most infamous genocide in history perpetrated by one of the world's most cultured and advanced people, the Germans.
McMillan does about as good of a job as probably possible trying to explain the why. I say as good of a job, because some things do defy explanation. McMillan denies that, but even after reading this generally very good attempt, at the end, I still did ask the fundamental question of "why" and it was not completely answered.
What McMillan does exceptionally well is give a detailed political, cultural, social and economic picture of Germany from the 1880s through 1945. To understand the Holocaust, Hitler and the Nazis, you do indeed have to start in the 1880s.
McMillan tries, somewhat unsuccessfully I'm afraid, to explain "why Germany" vs. other advanced nations of the time, even though many of the same conditions were present in France, Britain, even the U.S. He goes to pains to reach the conclusion that it was a long series of unfortunate circumstances, bad luck and historical developments vs. something to do with the German character itself that would have allowed this to happen, contrary to Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi when he states "they construct shelters and trenches, they repair the damage, they build, they fight, they command, they organize and they kill. What else could they do? They are Germans."
The author correctly points out that Germans are far from alone as perpetrators of genocide throughout history. But the holocaust is a unique genocide. The only one whose sole purpose was to kill every single member of the targeted group. To make them extinct. It was not out of desperation to maintain power and get an opponent out of a region (Rwanda, Turks against Armenians, Bosnia), misguided policies in pursuit of flawed ideologies that supposedly mean well in the end (Cambodia, USSR under Stalin) or largely inadvertent (Spanish conquest of Latin America and smallpox). The Holocaust was perpetrated from a position of strength on a people who posed no actual threat to the ones in power, with the goal of simply making those people nonexistent.
He analyzes in convincing fashion a series of events and conditions that led Germany down this ultimately horrific path. His primary argument relates to democracy's miserable failure in Germany. Germany did not get democracy until 1918, at the end of World War I. Many leaders of the democratic movement in Germany were socialists, and socialism (and worst, communism) were real threats in Germany, especially to the elites and well-educated. The bolshevik revolution in Russia only solidifed those fears that "it could happen here." And it could. For decades in Germany there had been bitter and extreme divisions and rivalries amongst political parties, factions and classes. The socialist and communist movements in Germany were, somewhat wrongly, linked to Jews by most Germans. The Nazi treatment of Jews and slavic peoples in the East is inextricably linked.
In order to overcome these bitter divisions in German society and politics to reach the goal of a stronger Germany, many leaders hoped to unite Germany by creating a strong sense of nationalism. Linked to that was the rabid anti-Semitism all over Europe (and the U.S.) at the time. You create nationalism in part by identifying enemies at home and abroad. Finding enemies abroad was linked to Germany's very aggressive imperialist policies leading into World War I. Germany was late to actually become a nation and late to the Imperialist game. By the time they got in the sweepstakes, most of the good territory had already been grabbed by their rivals. So for Germany, the only way to gain valuable territory and become a world power to was to take territory already possessed by rivals like Britain, France and the U.S. All of this aggression is a big part of the cause of World War I. (The enemy at home were Jews, who were the ultimate outsiders in most European countries at the time). Hitler and the Nazis were simply the most extreme nationalists and anti-Semites among many.
Unique to Germany was this hope for a Great Man. Since Otto von Bismarck, one of the greatest political leaders of the 1800s, Germans had been looking for another Great Man to be their savior. After World War I, Germany was economically in chaos and humiliated by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. It is more than unfortunate that democracy got its chance in Germany under these impossible circumstances. Hitler comes to power largely through democratic means. As I tell my students, Hitler wins elections by promising the German people that there will be no more elections. Hitler fits this Great Man mold. As McMillan states, they were looking for him before Hitler ever arrived. And so key to Hitler's rise was that he had a string of stunning domestic and military successes early on that made him appear to be a deity to the desperate German people. It really was lots of luck and bold gambler's moves by Hitler in the face of an isolationist U.S. and war weary European powers. The Holocaust would not have happened without the unique man that was Adolf Hitler. Unique in the sense of his hatred, rage, unparalleled cruelty and sadism, paranoia, self-delusion combined with a charisma and stunningly good luck from 1933-1941 that brought him to power in Germany.
The brutal experiences of World War I cheapened life to a degree that was unprecedented in human history. Trench warfare with all of its deadly technology became mechanized killing. The most enthusiastic German soldiers during the Great War (such as Hitler) became Nazi killers. Add prevailing racist "scientific" theories like Social Darwinism, eugenics, etc. that were prevalent worldwide at the time, which allowed dehumanizing entire peoples and explaining that genetics made them dangerous, were also crucial to the Holocaust. As Heinrich Himmler coldly put it, "[with the Jews] it is exactly as with delousing...It is a manner of cleanliness...We will soon be completely free of lice." McMillan also makes great use of general psychological theories and studies (Milgram, Zimbardo) to show group think, deference to authority, adaptation and diffusion of responsibility that are common to all humanity. He also points out that in every country in which the Nazis killed Jews they found willing accomplices in those countries.
In the end, McMillan does a fantastic job explaining all that unfolded in Germany for the Holocaust to occur. All of these factors tragically came together. But in the end, I was still left asking why.
***1/2 out of *****
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