Tregre: Week 1 Blog, The Psychology Behind Genocide

Night, The Conspiracy, Soviet Story, and the nobel prize speeches all shared a common thread at the core. The pure shock and devastation of how such inhumane treatment and mass genocides were able to be conducted without interference. The horror and terror resonates in each material. There are many aspects I would like to address. Due to me being a psychology major, I felt like the entire assignment content this week was purely psychological along with the physical aspect of death.

The truth is, the Holocaust did happen. Along with this, other mass genocides also happened. Many wonder and study to this day how such an atrocity was able to occur. One can only speculate as to why nothing was done. It took awhile for genocides to be talked about. No one wanted to own up to it, admit that it was allowed to happen, and some just did not want to accept that it happened. People do not want to speak about bad things. It makes them uncomfortable and even embarrassed. I know that I am over 50% german and it is still hard knowing that my heritage was responsible for mass killings. Everyone is born with a conscience, so it makes it harder to own up to something so terrible. Which may lead to how Neo-Nazis came to be and how some people even go as far as denying the holocaust.

In Night, Wiesel wrote about his pain and detachment with these horrors. At times, he was the one helping others to keep going when they just gave up. The worst people in the concentration camps he said, were the ones sitting and staring into space. They were already dead and did not know it. This was a learned helplessness. They gave up and succumbed to what was happening. Their fight was gone. I, personally, would not know what to do in this type of situation. For example, the Jews in the camps knew that if they showed signs of weakness or caving, they would be executed. However, some still just gave up and accepted the fact that they would be killed regardless. It is a way of coping.

The others who did have the will and were lucky enough to survive were faced with even more after they were liberated. People did not want to talk to the survivors or about what happened. This goes back to blaming the victim. When terrible things happen, it is easier to maintain faith in a just world by believing that it was the victim's fault that this terrible thing happened. People are not able to deal with traumatic events and can't, so this is a way of coping too. It does not benefit the survivor, instead it isolates them.

Wiesel stated that this is by far the most damaging situation. When it is not talked about and nothing is done when devastating events occur. He quoted, "And then I explained to him how naive we were, that the world did know and remained silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe."
In this case it is the diffusion of responsibility. I am not sure if it is a familiar term, but it can be best explained that the more people who are present, the less likely one will take charge and assume responsibility. For example, if someone breaks their leg at a mall as opposed to a parking lot with one person in it, the person who broke their leg in the parking lot will most likely have the ambulance called the fastest. People diffuse the responsibility onto another. That is what made Wiesel so appalled. No one stepped in to stop this atrocity. They threw the responsibility onto others believing that someone else would help.

Many believe that the Nazi soldiers and civilians were all horrible people too. I am in no way saying that what happened was acceptable, it was 100% wrong, however, they all just followed authorities commands. Studies were done and it had nothing to do with thinking that what they were doing was right. Their leaders told them what to do so they followed suit. Even the leaders had to agree because if they did not follow orders they would be sent to a concentration camp as well, which was evident in The Conspiracy.

What was most powerful to me was Wiesel's discussion on indifference in his speech. He said that the most damaging was when people were indifferent. It was not fueled with hate, anger, or love. It was fueled by not caring. This was the worse. He said that, ""The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference." This is very true. The lack of empathy through all of this was astonishing. He said that "we must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." It is absurd how in the movie, The Conspiracy, they figured the easiest ways to stop the Jews would not be to sterilize them, but to just go ahead and kill them like they were nothing more than mosquitos.

Through these movies and readings, the horrible genocide did happen, along with other genocides that are rarely talked about. Whether it was starvation, execution, or another method, these people experienced night. However, the people of now and the future have a choice, to stand there indifferent, or to stand up and do what is right. That way, nothing like that terror can ever happen on this Earth again.


The famed picture of the survivor, Elie.