The Informed Heart

Citation preview

The

INFORMED

HEART MTTONOMY

IN

VIASS A(l

Bruno Bettelheim

$5.00

The Informed Heart BRUNO BETTELHEIM

BY

JT ROM

-

h

THE AUTHOR OF Love

comes a reassuring answer

to the

Not EflOUgh anxious night-

mares of brave new worlds of 1984. In books

previous

he

how

in

this

of ours even the

most

described

much maligned world

his

and

disintegrated children can regain dignity

autonomy.

He now

offers a challenge

to

self

fulfillment in a world of seemingly overpower-

ing technology and of the organization man.

From

his experience in

Dachau and Buchen-

wald, purposely contrived settings for the de-

humanization of man, he derives an opposite

mere

pattern, not for

survival,

but for new

inte-

gration and a deepening of vision which accepts the challenge of it

serve the full

modern mass and

fully

In order to achieve

be

satisfied

with a

life

this,

human "No

where the heart has

ing heart must invade reason with

give

way

to

if

the

lor an

symmetry

.

its

.

who have

will

we its

The darown living .

of reason

admit love and the pulsation of

—a quotation which those

life.

longer can

reasons which reason cannot know.

warmth even

and makes

society

must life"

be rich in meaning for

read this book about what makes

informed heart.

THE FREE PRESS OF GLENCOE, ILLINOIS

THE

INFORMED HEART

BRUNO BETTELHEIM

nr^

The Informed

Heart Autonomy

in a Jviass

Age

THE FREE PRESS OF GLENCOE, ILLINOIS

Copyright

©

1960 by The Free Press,

A

Corporation

America Printed in the United States of

DESIGNED BY SIDNEY SOLOMON

60-13776 Library of Congress Catalog Card No.

BOOK FIND CLUB EDITION

ao arudi

.Acknowledgments

X V

Frederick. 'inci Miklos

from my preface to Doctofs EyewUness Account

for permission to quote

Nyiszli's 'Auschwitz:

loSZlTAbnormal

7

J_Ly appreciation goes to the

and

A

permission to Social Psychology, tor and Mass Behavmr in Extreme

quote from "Individualism

authors

who

from other sources granted permission to quote

from, for permission to quote ffiSS^effitonmitt*. T Comm Rodm, Edouard by Servant," -'ThrcSl as Public 1959);

mentarv Vol. XXVIII (November,

Deu

quote from, schTverlagsanstait, for permission to 1958) (Stuttgart, Hoess R. by

Komman-

dant in Auschwitz, from De> SS-Staat, (rranK for permission to quote

Eugen Kogon,

permissionj» quote from E. P. ThePsycho'a'nalytic Quarterly for 19 Vo Fiction, Bernabeu's article, "Science Subject. ub ect im e Cnmes War from, Time, Inc., for permission to quote

^^

Women,"

in Time,

November

24, 1947.

^

:

.

(preface

E ARE IN GREAT HASTE TO SEND and receive messages from outer space. But so hectic and often so tedious are our days, that many of us have nothing of importance to communicate to those close to us. Never before have so many had it so good; no longer do

we tremble

in fear of sickness or hunger, of hidden evils in the dark, of the spell of witches. The burden of killing toil has been lifted from us, and machines, not the labor of our hands, will soon provide us with nearly all we need, and much that we don't really need. have inherited freedoms

We

man has striven after for centuries. Because of all this and much more we should be living in a dawn of great promise. But now that we are freer to enjoy life, we are deeply frustrated in our disappointment that the freedom

and comfort, sought with such deep desire, do not give meaning and purpose to our lives.

With

how

so much at hand that generations have striven bewildering that the meaning of life should evade

for,

us.

Freedoms we have, broader than ever before. But more than ever before most of us yearn for a self realization that eludes us,

while

we abide we

achieve freedom,

restless in the

midst of plenty. As we

are frightened by social forces that

(

vii )

seem

(

viii )

Preface to suffocate us,

seem to move in on us from

ever contracting world.

so of

all

parts of

are

an

becoming

with h£e The tedium and dissatisfaction dip out getting ready to let freedom great that many are diffitoo complicated, it is all too their hands. They feel

meaning has gone responsible they wish not to be their lives, then at least guilt. and burden of failure to let society carry the

cult to hold

out of for

it

it is

to

it,

and

to themselves. If

to preserve freedom, to achieve self realization, increasingly harder to know; adapt society to both, seems overwhelming problem of our days. felt as a central,

ust

and

on

how

our discussing the discomforts of Later in this volume, in to changeto how we are having civilization, I have alluded of only sameness repetition of From finding security in a having to live with a very flit and slow variations, we are achieving that must rest on

kind of security; one predict the outcome little chance to the good life, with very world. our actions in a fast changing

different

of

To manage

such a

feat,

no longer

heart and reason can

Work and

art,

family and

places. be kept in their separate each other. develop in isolation from socie y can no longer its own living Ling heart must invade reason with

The

way to of reason must give warmth, even if the symmetry of life. admit love and the pulsation with a life where the heart satisfied No longer can we be cannot know. Our hearts must has its reasons, which reason must be guided by an know the world of reason, and reason informed heart. Hence the

must speak

for itself.

title of this

book: for the rest

it

Qontcnts

Preface

vii

1.

The Concordance

2.

Imaginary Impasse

43

3.

The

65

4.

Behavior in Extreme Situations: Coercion

ioy

5.

Behavior in Extreme Situations: Defenses

iyy

6.

The

23J

7.

Men Are Not

of Opposites

Consciousness of Freedom

Fluctuating Price of Life

Index

Ants

5

267

30/

THE I

N

F

O R M

E D

II

E

A R

T

1

Qoncordance of Ovvositcs

c7fie

J

the

human

I

N THIS

VOLUME HAVE TRIED TO PRESENT I

my

thoughts and work that have to do with condition in modern mass society, and with the

those aspects of

psychological impact of totalitarian tendencies.

Small

but

book have been published before, though in quite different form. All that follows was newly written or rewritten with this book in mind. I have been sifting the ideas presented here for the last twenty years, since they emerged only slowly in their present form. Ordinarily, the development of an author's views of man and life are his private affair, particularly when he considers his publications scientific reports. Still, a writer whose work depends on observation, introspection, and the scrutiny of motives wonders what inner links bind together his life's work as he sits down to select what from his writings is worth being rethought and brought up to date, what of it still meets his present opinions, what deserves to be forgotten, and what significant portions of this

Perhaps the reader too is interested in knowing what deeper unity binds the thoughts of a book

calls for radical revision.

together beyond the fact that they were set

down by one

person and relate to a single broad subject. In an effort to I have set down some personal hope will connect more intimately what might otherwise seem just another miscellany of social psychology.

sketch this inner coherence history that

I

(

3

)

(4

The Informed Heart

)

have another, more important reason, deeply conconviction nected with the main thesis of this book. It is my impact of deadening that to withstand and counteract the

But

I

man's work must be permeated by his pernot be due to mere sonality. Just as his choice of work must should directly rebut convenience, chance or expediency, in this world of ours, flect how he reaches for self realization society, a

mass

being objectively purposein life. Out of this purposes should also reflect his own and begin this I discard a conventional reticence

so the results of his work, beside ful,

conviction

book by relating how I came to which it addresses itself.

The climate

generation of

be involved in the problems

parents raised their children in a

my

now vanished-a

to

western and central Europe that

and ever wished to believe in an age of permanent progress by fact, contradicted Though security and happiness. greater

by what creed was accepted with firm belief, particularly benefited we would now call the upper middle classes who early twenmost by developments of the late nineteenth and this

For them, such comfortable beliefs were experience. In their lifeeasily held, because supported by accelerating time they had witnessed a continuing and ever the more with along social, economic, and cultural progress, tieth

centuries.

and equitable politics and social practices that charWar. acterized western Europe before the first World deep sadwith remarked But one August day Lord Grey

rational

over and clairvoyance, "the lamps are going out all His Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime." beyond his prediction not only came true but extended far being "the ceased lifetime and into ours. Northern Europe

ness

workshop of the human

race,"

hard

as

that

was

for

my

to all. generation to accept before Hitler made it obvious intelViennese of generation The formative years of my and psychological stood under the deep impact of the

lectuals

The Concordance

of

Opposites

social crisis of the first war.

For

(

us,

adolescence and early maturity was

5

)

the personal crisis of

compounded by

the

social

and economic chaos that followed the war and culmi-

nated

first

and

in Russian Bolshevism, then National Socialism,

finally in a

second World War. While

the younger generation

all

this

was true for

over Europe, for the Viennese

was further aggravated by the collapse of the AustroHungarian empire. The central intellectual and emotional problems this posed to me make up a highly personalized instance of the now dead but then very lively "nature-

it

nurture" controversy. misery of the war and postwar years in a suddenly no longer imperial Vienna, the collapse of the existing order

The

of paternalistic autocracy at exactly the

moment when

adolescent revolted against the world of his parents,

the

all this

brought its special problems and led to particular solutions. It is hard to revolt against a parent whose whole world lias suddenly fallen shattered to pieces. Revolt is the less avoidable because the adolescent feels even more betrayed at suddenly realizing that the parent he thought an oppressive but protective hero is just a clay god. He can no longer test his

new

values against those of his parents, because they

turned out to have no value at all. his new and still untried way of

And how life

unstable, so in flux, as parental ways

can he even

test

against something so

now seemed?

All of a

sudden he feels deprived of the firm support, not of his parents, but of the values they instilled in him; and this happens just when he needs them most as a safe harbor from which to venture on his new and anxious moves into semiadult independence. Such a defection by his individual parents is the more keenly experienced by the adolescent because it deprives him of the security with his parents that alone 1 lets him rebel safely against the world his parents stand for. 1 It was this psychological situation and a reaction to it of total hopelessness that forms the background for much of Kafka's writings.

The Informed Heart

(

6

)

Quest for certainty All this and much more led to the fervent wish to create permanent and satisfactory society. The wish fathered the belief, and since the wish was intense, the belief soon became easy conviction: a new and different society could readily be created, a "good" society that would guarantee the good life for all. This society was to be both very stable and secure, while at the same time permitting, even guaranteeing, greatest freedom of personal development and self realization. It took me many years— from the end of the first World War until nearly the beginning of the second— to recognize intellectually and against strong emotional resistance, the contrary nature of these requirements. Further struggle was needed to acknowledge what was rationally arrived at, and still more time and effort before I could fully accept it a

emotionally.

Since this adolescent

crisis

took place in Vienna, against

a family background of assimilated Jewish bourgeosie, the influence of Freud and his teachings soon made itself felt. These interfered with the wished-for belief that if only society were more rationally organized, no such crisis or the discomfort it brought would ever perturb another youth. Psychoanalysis suggested that maybe it was not society that created all these difficulties in man, but rather the hidden, inner,

contradictory nature

of

man

that created

difficulties

for

society.

This, then, was the particular form in which the natureitself to me: in order to create the was it of first importance to change society radically enough for all persons to achieve full self realization? In this case psychoanalysis could be discarded, with the possible exception of a few deranged persons. Or was this the wrong approach to the problem and could only persons who had achieved full personal liberation and integration by being psychoanalyzed create such a "good" society? In the

nurture conflict presented

good

society,

The Concordance

of

Opposites

(

7

)

thing was to forget for the time being economic revolution and to concentrate instead on pushing psychoanalysis; the hope was that once the vast majority of men had profited from its inner liberation, they would almost automatically create the good society for themselves and all others. Most of my small group of intimate friends (the conlatter case the correct

any

social or

cept of peer group and

its

importance for the adolescent

had not yet been formulated, or if it had, it certainly had not reached postwar Vienna) strove for certainty at all cost, as adolescents of all ages are apt to do.

Trying to escape their inner struggles and contradictions, they embraced unqucstioningly one of these two sets of theories, blinding themselves to the merits of the other.

ism and likely as not early

Some

of

them joined

communism— which

a

social-

few years

was superseded by either blind or uneasy partisanship

later

to official

communism

munism

(Trotsky, etc.)— totally rejecting what

(Russian), or to splinter group com-

Freud had

taught them. Others chose the opposite solution and devoted themselves just as singlemindcdly to the pursuit of psychoanalysis. Still others, and they were the majority of this

group of by then University students and their fringes, retired to a private world of art, scientific pursuit, or bohemia, while

many

of

my

gentile friends

embraced either orthodox

or neo^catholicism (and many, later on, national socialism) thus denying any validity to either side of the controversy. Of

some members of the first two groups who one time fully embracing one persuasion communism, at another time, flatly convinced of the

course, there were

changed such as

sides, at

merits of the other solution, psychoanalysis.

Much felt

as

I,

too,

would have liked

to live in certainty, I

unable to join either persuasion with a whole heart.

Many aspects of each seemed attractive and convincing to me at one time or another, while most of the time each one seemed empty without the other. The solution of a very few who tried to graft psychoanalysis onto communism (the best

(

The Informed Heart

(

8

)

the was Wilhelm Reich) seemed from this for viable; not to be, beginning, and soon turned out obvious being the conmost the reasons, there were many

known

of

whom

tradictory nature of the union. the At times I, too, tried to get around

problem by escapconcept too was still

this ing into privatization, though took was a preoccupation it unknown. The particular form lesser degree, music, along with literature and art and, to a intimate relations But with concentrating on a few intensely literature had preceded my though my interest in art and social problems, they proved interest in psychoanalysis and to answer my quest tor discouraging since they did not seem But I was not ready to disa better man in a better society. could only plumb deep enough, card them yet. I thought if I right answer. I might find the one it was that disPhilosophy seemed to plumb deepest, so There I encountered the cipline I turned to at one period. but since I was still theory of the concordance of contraries, helped me little in my looking for unilateral solutions, it how it could be applied to search. I did not then realize of the organism understanding the dynamic interdependence consists of struggles to and its environment, and how life within a basically irreconreach higher stages of integration To accept this last as fact was not possible

cilable conflict.

As a young man anxious to find himself environment-in this particular I was convinced that any more as society-simply needed case viewed less as nature and way that self realization would to be reorganized in such a

for

me

follow.

at the time.

But

this self realization I

could not yet see as existing

within a conjunctio oppositorum. whether it was the good So again I found myself asking or with some effort, prosociety that would automatically, men who would then perpetuate it; or

duce the good presently existing man whether it was hopeless to think that live the good life in it, could create the good society and

The Concordance

of

Opposites

(

9

)

because his very nature would interfere with and finally destroy

it.

If

the

first

were

true,

then at

all cost,

cost of great suffering to generations, the to

be created, because

it

good

even at the society

had

alone would automatically breed

the good man. This was the promise which, in the early

communism seemed to hold out. was apparent by the twenties, was not creating

years after the

But Russia,

it

first

war,

would guarantee full self realization to man. democracy was the next best bet and I joined, but with hesitation and misgivings. It was clear enough that it was not going to create a better society until its ranks and leadership were first peopled by better men. If, on the other hand, only the good man could create the good society, then the problem was how to change existing man so that he would become the good man who would then, in his image, create and perpetuate the good society. Of all the known ways of influencing people, psychoanalysis seemed to hold out most promise lor a radical change Ear the better among existing men. By that time some l my friends had undergone psychoanalysis to become analysts; persons who were psychoanalyzed without wishing to become (and becoming) analysts were hardly to be found among my the society that

Social

friends at that time; the vogue of analysis

among young The per-

intellectuals barely started before the early thirties.

sonality changes

I could observe in them did not seem to encourage the notion that it was apt to create the good man who then would create the good society. But this could be,

and always was, ascribed to the fact that these people had simply been too sick to begin with to show the full benefit of their psychoanalysis.

The promise

of psychoanalysis

In the end it was psychoanalysis that I turned to more hopefully than to political reform. Nor was it only disappointment in the chances for the good society creating the

The Informed Heart

'

'

that decided me. I entered psychoand partly to find soluanalysis partly lor personal reasons, me, some of which I have tions to problems that bothered out intending to practice the just sketched. I did not start derive from it, besides perprofession, though I hoped to comprehension of the theoretical, sonal benefit, a deeper aesthetic problems that I wished social, philosophical, and I that in my youthful arrogance to understand, problems ot help the with solve was probably sure I would be able to

fully

untrammeled man

psychoanalysis.

more

analysis, and many took several years of intensive how far psychological exyears of its practice, to teach me of a man living in periences can change the personality It

a particular

society,

and where

its

influence

stops^

The

camp, and then the imlessons of Hitler, the concentration World, were required migration and adjustment to the New society can, and to what degree for learning to what degree it

and life pattern of the cannot, change the personality some twenty These lessons were finally taught me

individual.

twenty years to

But it took another fifteen or lessons. understand what was implied in those psychoanalysis can much however First, I realized that

years ago.

help the adult with his personal

change him enough

difficulties, it is

to assure the

good

life.

To

not apt to

achieve this

just the few who at all times for the vast majority, and not struggle, called managed to gain it through deep personal

man and of society. reform of the entire education of but most exNot only infant rearing and formal education, achieve the to different periences of the young had to be for

good

life for

the

many and not

just the all

too few.

But

one had first to underbefore one could advocate reform, rearing did to the child, stand what present methods of child and thus society how they conditioned his later life in society,

to swing back (that assumptions two and forth many times between the itself.

Certainly in

my

case, the

pendulum had

The Concordance society, or

of

Opposites

that the child,

is

(

father to the

could emotionally accept what

H

man) before

)

I

had realized intellectually what counts, or what constitutes the good life, under normal conditions, is living a subtle balance between individual aspiration, society's rightful demands, and man's nature; and that an absolute submission to any one of them will never do. I

years before: that

The

next lesson

needed

had to do with man's Here I am approaching the essence of my life's work, which centers on the application of psychoanalysis to social problems, and to the bringing up of children in particular. That psychoanalysis was not all it possibly could be, and that its theory and practice needed improvement had come I

to learn

nature and society's impact on

it.

my awareness through observing what it did and did not do for two autistic children whom I lived with for several years, as part of their treatment. Trying to understand to

what happened to them, and also how and why had to be modified over and above psychoanalysis to achieve any improvement, led ditions

living contheir

daily

to an obvious conclusion. For very disturbed persons the impact of classical psychoanalysis is not enough to promote the neces-

sary personality changes; the impact of psychoanalysis

or of a

itself,

organized on its basis, had to be in effect all the time, not just one hour of the day—or so it seemed at the time. This effort was made with the two youngsters, but with limited success. Still, that was as far as I had gone life

at the time.

most was

I

did not then recognize that what they needed

human environment that was not yet and which had therefore to be specially designed the purpose. It had to be an environment that offered to live in a

existent,

for

meaningful

human

relations, satisfying living conditions

significant goals, not simply to the life

and

an application of psychoanalysis they already knew.

(

The Informed Heart

12

)

psychoanalysis came from further reservations about occupation a decade before Hitler's closer to home. About external life, 1 radical changes in my of Austria brought approaching or living in an inner realized vaguely that I was and professionally life, though socially c isiTin my personal late in ordered and successful. Relatively all appeared well and described in what Erikson named life I was living moratorium. It was this condecades later as a psycho-social several years of analysis nor the dition that neither years resolved. that followed it had did time I was imprisoned, I All the same, up to the of psychoanalysis in general, and not doubt the merit of

Some

it my own in particular. I was convinced was more no that for me as it could, and

had done

as

much had

possible; so I

live the

way

I

then

down, more or less uneasily, to it. was, and I tried to like „,„!„ my analysis or my analyst This is no reflection on either I me. Among many other things since both did much for the understand, live with, and help owe it to them that I can and children, or psychotic settled

m ost

withdrawn, deteriorated

^anize

for

them the

and human environhuman potentialities.

particular social

their they need for achieving camp on the other hand concentration The impact of the me what years of a useful and within a few weeks, did for with had not done. (I realize tha ^ quite successful analysis dre to open analyst

Snt

my

myself, and "his admission I lay analysis provided criticism that

my

me

with insight

but

the credit through. Perhaps it is to did not lead to working not trouble me.) that the prospect does of

my

New

analysis

viewpoints

Through my own literature, I

was

still

psychoanalytic analysis, the study of

practu*.

theories to and the application of such of the true searching for an understanding

na

The Concordance ture of man.

of Opposites

(

IB

)

Though

I was no longer convinced that psychowould produce the "good" man, I still way to effect significant changes in per-

analysis as a therapy

thought

it

the best

sonality.

In respect to these, as to so

my

German

year in the

many

others of

my

ideas,

concentration camps of Dachau and

Buchenwald in 1938-39 came as a great shock. It was to teach me much; so much, that I am not at all sure I have even now exhausted what was implied in that learning experience. Since a psycho-social study of the concentration

camp forms

a

good portion of

book,

this

here what those experiences were. has been influenced by realizations

may

the experience

How

need not repeat

I

largely

my work

being derived from be seen, for example, from my paper still

on schizophrenia as a reaction to extreme situations. 2 What were these realizations, and how did I come to make them? When I speak here about what I learned in the concentration camps, it must be viewed in the context of that experience. the

The extreme

camps imposed on

deprivation and fear for

all

life

that

prisoners, particularly Jewish in-

mates, did not make for clear thinking. Bui maybe what was lacking in reasoning power was made up for by the deep feeling impressions one receives in an extreme situation. Such impressions engrave themselves permanently on the mind and can lead— when not repressed— to a re-evaluation of all values, even if the mind is unable to sort them

out at the time, or to understand their far-reaching

all

implications.

While

in the camp,

psychoanalytic

problem

my 2

of

physical

I

was

little

concerned with whether and only with the

theory was adequate,

how

to survive in

and moral

American Journal

ways that would protect both

existence. Therefore,

what struck

of Orthopsychiatry, 26, 1956, pp. 507-518.

me

(

The Informed Heart

1*

)

more shockin? in terms was probably more urgent and realizaand expectations. It was the of my immediate needs psychoanalytic to who, according tion that those persons best then, should have stood up theory as I understood it experience, were often very under the rigor of the camp behavior under extreme stress poor examples of human same body of theory and the Others who according to the should have done P^Y- Reexpectations based on it, and of human courage sented shining examples ;

first

I

taking place, and not only also saw fast changes and often too; incredibly faster

^

m behavmr

much more

but personality P^oanalyt c that were possible by radical changel than any change conditions of the camp, these treatment. Given the but sometimes definodyte were more often for the worse, could bring the same environment the better. So one and for better and worse. about radical changes both does doubt that environment can and I could no longer perand of man's behavior account for important aspects prewas a throwback to earlier, sonality. This, in a way, society could convictions that only the good psychoanalytic

form; because good man, though in reverse bad environment soobviously saw before my eyes how a bad social conditions also evoked evil in men. But the same even evoked "-v meritorious brought into the open, perhaps If one never evinced them before. qualities in some who world of the concen same society, in this case the man deep reaching changes m tration camps, could create but accounted for personality, then it seemed that society radically varieties, and sometimes since it produced wide then U behavior and types of opposite personality changes was the decisive factor reason that it was man who I

create the

ZL

stood to in

what he

society.

And

of be like within it, irrespective man a that assured psychoanalysis by no means the impact of under person better or worse is

wornd becoJe

and

will

a

a better or worse

society.

=

The Concordance

Opposites

of

(

15

)

Such realizations were not easy for me, but I had to them quickly if I wished to survive, and in ways I could approve of. The psychoanalytic notions by which I had tried to guide my life had fooled me in this respect,

arrive at

fooled

me

They failed at the moment when I So new viewpoints were needed. Most

radically.

needed them most. important of all was to arrive at a clear conception of what could be given to the environment without compromising the inner self. Some prisoners tried to give the environment all; most of them were either quickly destroyed or became successful inmates, "old prisoners." Others tried to maintain their old selves unchanged; but while they had a lot better chance to survive as persons, their solution was not flexible. Most of them were not up to living in an extreme situation and if not freed soon, they did not survive. This realization of the tremendous impact of the environment did not come as easy as it came soon. I was imprisoned in the camps at about the time when my convictions derived from psychoanalysis were at their height: that the personality shaping influence of the immediate family is all important, and that society in the broader sense is relatively negligible by comparison. I also believed firmly that nothing compared with psychoanalysis when it came to freeing the individual and guiding him toward higher integration. My experience in the camps taught me, almost within days, that I had gone much too far in believing that only changes in man could create changes in society. I had to accept thar. the environment could, as it were, turn personality upside down, and not just in the small child, but in the mature adult too. If I wanted to keep it from happening to me, I had to accept this potentiality of the environment, to decide where and where not to adjust, and how far. Psychoanalysis, as I understood it, was of no help in this all important decision. Most surprising of all, psychoanalysis which I had come

The Informed Heart

(

'

key to all human problems offered no of how to survive suggestions or help toward the solution For that I had camps. and° survive halfway decently in the that in my psychoanalytic expeto fall back on qualities importance, if not of negarience and thinking were of little to

view

as the best

qualities I had learned to stress tive valence, while those help. often as much of a hindrance as a

were

experience helped Certainly psychoanalytic theory and uninteme to understand the problems I was up against: present in man; under grated, asocial tendencies are always controlling them break certain circumstances the inhibitions having to be down and they appear openly, unrestrained; to a breakdown of these in the concentration camp leads react differently, if the inhibiting forces; if different persons of others fail, if inhibitions of some stand up while those asostrengthen their defenses against behaving

some even

histories be ascribed to their different life or personality make-up. much Such explanations-and I could and did apply

cially, it

can

all

to the

more subtle applications of psychoanalytic reasoning some inproblem-could shed light on what happened to not whether or not dividuals. But my central problem was whether and how psychoanalysis could explain things, but and others to survive well these explanations could help me with beings under extreme conditions. Experience conwas camps the both analyzed and unanalyzed persons in it down, chips were vincing demonstration that when the he unimportant why a person acted the way

as

human

was utterly

was how he acted. While did- the only thing that counted the environment psychoanalysis could explain the why best, some-but in conditioning the actions of

was more not of

effective

all.

clarity,

did

1

Only dimly at first, but with ever greater man acts can alter what also come to see that soon how a camps became better he is. Those who stood up well in the

The Concordance

of

Opposites

(

17

)

men, those who acted badly soon became bad men; and this, or at least so it seemed, independent of their past life history and their former personality make-up, or at least those of personality

aspects

that

seemed

significant

in

psycho-

analytic thinking.

would not do under conditions prevailing

It just

camps

to

view courageous,

in the

endangering actions as an outgrowth of the death instinct, aggression turned against the

self,

life

testing the indestructibility of the body, megalo-

manic denial

of danger,

histrionic

feeding of one's nar-

cissism or whatever other category the action

would have be viewed from in psychoanalysis. These and many other interpretations have validity in terms of depth psychology or the psychology of the unconscious, and they certainly did to

Only viewing courageous behavior by a prisoner within the spectrum of deptli analysis seemed ludicrously apply.

beside the point. So while psychoanalysis lost nothing as far went, it went unexpectedly, and in terms of my expectations, shockingly short of the mark.

as it

The way

a person acted in a

showdown could not be

deduced from his inner, hidden motives which, likely as not, were conflicting. Neither his heroic nor his cowardly dreams, his free associations or conscious fantasies permitted correct predictions as to whether, in the next moment, he

would

risk his life to protect the life of others, or out of

panic betray

many

in a vain effort to gain

some advantage

for himself.

As long

my

as the actions of others

and were mostly

did not directly endanger

me, I could indulge in viewing their unconscious processes as equal in importance to their overt behavior, if not more so. As long life

of theoretical interest to

my own life was running its well ordered course, I could indulge myself by believing that the working of my uncon-

as

scious self.

mind

was,

But when

if

at

not

my

"true"

one moment

self,

certainly

my own

life,

my

"deeper"

at the

next

(

The Informed Heart on that o£ others, depended mnch were concluded that my actions

moment than

my

actions,

my

actions,

more my

is

then

true

)

I

sell

motives. Since these unconscious or preconscious counter others, so often ran

my own and

those of

the working of the unconwhat could be deduced from uncovlonger accept that what is scious mind, I could no the psychology is what constitutes ered by means of depth i unconscious What goes on in his "true" nature of man. and his life, but it is part of him certainly true of man, it man. is not the "true" accept that only id, ego, Aoain, it is simple to state and form man; that only unconand superego in their entirety behavior in their totality are scious thoughts and overt whether or which of these aspects man. But the issue is not and need to be most considered exist, but which of them create to lite, order to live the good in what combination, in the to adapt the environment, the good society; in order done to a correct procedures, so that justice is

to

educational balance.

What, then, were the

lessons

I

learned from

my

expe-

camps? rience in the concentration " by no means the most effective Firstly: psychoanalysis is placed in a particular type way to change personality. Being changes, produce much more radical of environment can 3 and in a much shorter time. psychoanalytic theory was Secondly: the then existing happened to the inadequate to explain fully what

P"™"™

what makes for guidance for understanding it *ave little man. Applied within the approthe "good" life, the "good" of its clarified much. Outs.de priate frame of reference it ~7I~htcr consequence apy; that is the cltion

the use of milieu therof this realization was total

of a purposefully designed radical personality changes apt to help in achieving psychoanalysis. by be reached

could not

m

«-nio assume normal person, before

to

,"1"le bcha ™g

so for the test)

n

r

"I-— » ^JUd.

"

The »lmion

,„„

,11

theory: »». relatively simple in

other forme,.,

norm*

it

consisted

J^^^^U

Behavior changed,

in

Extreme Situations: Coercion

(

115

now merged with my

)

efforts to find out which and why, and what that did to them. Soon I realized I had found a solution to my main problem: by occupying myself whenever possible with problems that interested me, by talking with my fellow prisoners and comparing impressions, I was able to feel I was doing something constructive and on my own. It also offered great relief during the hours without end when we were forced to perform exhausting labor that asked for no mental concentration. To forget for a time that I was in the camp, and to know that I was still interested in what had always held my interest before, seemed at first the greatest advantage of my efforts. As time went on, the renewed self respect I felt because I was managing to occupy myself in ways that were meaningful to me, became even more valuable than the

prisoners invented rumors

pastime.

Memorizing the data It

was impossible to keep notes, because there was no it, and no place to keep them. Every prisoner was

time for

subject to frequent searching of his body or belongings, and for any kind of notes found in his possession, however in-

nocuous, he was punished severely. It seemed purposeless to risk such punishment because there was no way to take notes out of the camp since the naked prisoners due for release

were again searched most

carefully. 4

4 This was true when I was in the camps. But during the disorganization of the last years of the war a very few prisoners who enjoyed special prerogatives managed to keep and hide notes on which, after liberation, they based accounts of their experiences. Even those notes could never have been taken out of the camps; they exist because the prisoners were still alive when liberated by the Allied forces. Only two

such diaries have come to my attention: Odd Nansen's notes, on which he based From Day To Day (New York: L. P. Putnam's Sons 1949). and the unpublished notes kept by Edgar Kupfer while in the camp, which he tentatively titled: The Last Years of Dachau (Microfilm, University of Chicago).

(

H6

The Informed Heart

The •

i

)

handkap was^to make Here l was remember what happened.

this only way to get around *ff„rt«

to

sense of was the ever present

""Whnfsome

what

s

tne use

y

most were prisoners were reticent,

more

MS- -- ™-

;;"r,t:r;ir;:

,„ ,„d„,'e

L

,00

W.«ng work

ox,,„^ «

mandndebted Dwight

1»»J£"~

*

y

^J

£S?S SSSSL ^became

{

to

i

to

wider n afte rward, the Unown. more general,

Behavior

in

Extreme Situations: Coercion

(

119

)

TRAUMATJZATION The shock

of

imprisonment

Sudden personality changes are often the result of traumatic experiences. In discussing the impact of the camps on the prisoners, the initial shock of being torn away from one's family, friends and occupation and then deprived of one's civil rights and locked into a prison, may be separated

from the trauma of subjection to extraordinary abuse. Most prisoners experienced these two shocks separately, because they usually spent several days in a local prison where they were relatively unharmed, before being transported to the

camp.

Their "initiation" to the concentration camp, which took place while on transport, was often the first torture prisoners had ever experienced and was, for most of them, the worst torture they

would be exposed

to either physically or psy-

chologically.

Whether and how much the initial shock was experienced trauma depended on the individual personality. But if one wishes to generalize, the prisoners' reactions can be analyzed on the basis of their socio-economic class and as severe

their political sophistication. Obviously these categories overand they, too, are separated only for the purposes of discussion. Another factor of importance was whether a lap,

prisoner had ever been in prison before, either as a criminal or for political activity. 7 7 During my stay in the camps the main categories, in order of their respective sizes, were: Gentile political prisoners, mostly Social Democrats and Communists (the majority of lower class origin, though

some were middle class), had opposed Hitler (all

also a

few aristocrats who, as monarchists etc., upper class). The asocial or "work-

of these,

shy" groups, imprisoned because they had objected to working conhad no regular jobs, had complained about wages, etc. (lower class). Jewish political prisoners (mostly middle class).

ditions,

Former members

of the French Foreign Legion, the Jehovah's Witnesses (Bibelforscher)

and other conscientious objectors (mostly lower

class).

The

so called

I*

(

The Informed Heart

)

in prisoners (a minority group Non-political middle class and withs were those least able to the concentration camps)

inSl

he

shock.

They were

understand utterly unable to

they and why. More than ever wha had happened to them that m. self respect up to aung to what ^d given them the SS assure abused, they would ment Even while being understand They could not never opposed Nazism.

Tev had why

question the law without impnunjustly now, though

who ha^ always obeyed

"hey

Even were being persecuted. oppressors even they^red not oppose their

oTd,

though

it

would have given them

;r^i2 -

e

•

;;

!E

badh, w-ile

The .he

m.thought

were a sell respect they

^ —

.» * *».

ss

»^

•J-,^ £J* *.

superiority. emphasized their position of

.

g

m ^J^"^^™,

anxious whole was especially some way. should be respected in

What

upset them

^rSX'^Tho^he » „:„*,„„ ,ble

me nt

Their

self

hold Us

own

again.,

0—

N.uonal

Soc.al-

esteemJiadj ested_on_ajta^^ ;

a. the f™°™**

was made nrincinles that no exception

as a

warning and

for revenge.

expected persecuthey was less of a shock because tion by the SS, imprisonment he resented prepared for it. They were psychologically their that fit accepted it as something

Zr

fate

those political prisoners

who had

^^

but somehow

While the course of events. mi nt their future and what and correctly anxious about no saw friends, they certainly hanpen to their families and

^standing of

reTon

to feel

degraded by the

they suffered under

""As

camp

fact of

i-P—nt

conditions as

conscientious objectors,

all

much

though

as other pris

Jehovah's Witnesses were

impr onwere even less affected by sent to the camps. They behcfc thanks to nrent and kept their integrity refusal eyes of the SS was a their only crime in the

r^dreh^

Since

Behavior

in

Extreme Situations: Coercion

to bear arms, they

123

)

were frequently offered freedom in return

for military service.

Members

(

They

steadfastly refused.

group were generally narrow in outlook and experience, wanting to make converts, but on the other hand exemplary comrades, helpful, correct, dependable. They were argumentative, even quarrelsome only when someone questioned their religious beliefs. Because of their of this

conscientious work habits, they were often selected as foremen. But once a foreman, and having accepted an order from the SS, they insisted that prisoners do the work well and in the time allotted. Even though they were the only group of prisoners who never abused or mistreated other prisoners (on the contrary, they were usually quite courteous to fellow prisoners), SS officers preferred them as orderlies

because of their work habits,

Quite

tudes.

in

contrast

to

skills,

the

and unassuming

continuous

atti-

internecine

warfare among the other prisoner groups, the Jehovah's Witnesses never misused their closeness to SS officers to gain positions of privilege in the camp.

The

criminal group were least affected by the shock of Much as they hated being in the camps, they

imprisonment.

showed open glee at finding themselves on equal terms with political and business leaders, with attorneys and judges, some of whom had once sent them to prison. Their resent-

ment

who had once been their "betters" explains why many of them became willing tools of the SS policing the camps; when to this was added the chance of those

in part

in

of exploiting other prisoners economically, sistibly attractive to

them

it

became

irre-

to serve the SS against the pris-

oners.

Initiation to the

camps

Usually the standard initiation of prisoners took place during transit from the local prison to the camp. If the dis-

(

The Informed Heart

124

)

down to transport was often slowed tance was short, the in, their prisoners. During enough time to break the to nearly camp, prisoners were exposed rial transport to the on^th depended of the abuse constant torture. The natnre o group SS man in charge of a fantasy of the particular definite pattern. Physical Still" they all had a frequent kickin (aMo punishment consisted of whipping, with shooting, or wounding men or groin), slaps in the face, ^exwith attempts to produc bayonet. These alternated to forced were instance, prisoners treme exhaustion. For and hours, glaring lights, to kneel for tare for hours into

alw

^

;

Z

but nc prisoner another's wounds. The guard was allowed to care for his or defile what hit one another and to also forced prisoners to values. They prisoners' most cherished the SS considered the and God, to accuse themselves were forced to curse their and adultery of their -^s another of vile actions, and prostitution. I never met fi lasted at least weive kind of initiation, which obey to failure it was over, any often much longer. Until he p another prisoner, or any an order, such as slapping swiftly as mutiny and tortured prisoner was viewed

From time

killed, to time a prisoner got

L

,

^^^^

gLn

a

punished by death. The purpose of

abuse was to trauchange break their resistance; to matize the prisoners and not yet their personals least their behavior if this

massive

initial

Jhu

at

and

that tortures became could be seen from the fact resisting degree that prisoners stopped less violent to the most the even SS order, comp.ied immediately with any less

and

outrageous.

There

is

c

no doubt

part of a cothat the initiation was had prisoners concentration camp

herent plan. Quite a few to headquarters for questiomng, or to travel to Gestapo they the return to the camp appear in court as witnesses. On

Behavior

in

Extreme Situations: Coercion

(

125

)

were hardly touched. Even when they were transported along with a group of new prisoners, they were left alone by the SS as soon as they made their status known as prisoners already initiated. When a thousand of us Austrian prisoners were arrested in Vienna and brought to Dachau, scores were

on the transports, and many more were permanently injured; hardly one of us escaped without injuries of some sort. But when half a year later a similar number were transferred from Dachau to Buchenwald, a transport killed or died

we dreaded would be in transit,

about

it.

like the first one, not one of us died and if anyone was severely injured I failed to learn By and large, this second transport lasting about

as long as the

first, was not much worse than a day in the camps, except for our desperate anxiety. It is hard to say just how much the process of personality

change was speeded up by what prisoners experienced during the initiation. Most of them were soon totally exhausted; physically from abuse, loss of blood, thirst, etc.; psychologically from the need to control their anger and desperation before

could lead to a suicidal resistance. As a result they were only partly conscious of what happened. In general, they remembered details afterward and did not mind it

talking about them, but they did not like to talk about what they had thought or felt while being tortured. The

few who volunteered information made vague statements that sounded like devious rationalizations to justify their having endured treatment so damaging to their self respect without trying to fight back. The few who did try to fight back could not tell about it; they were dead. I can recall my own extreme weariness, partly from a slight bayonet wound received early in the transport and

from a heavy blow on the head of blood that left recollection of port. I

my

wondered

Both led to a loss I have a clear thoughts and emotions during the trans-

me

all

later on.

groggy. Nevertheless,

the time

why

the SS did not kill us

126

(

The Informed Heart

going

much without

and that man can endnre so though some prisoners or committing suicide,

outright,

Lane

out bv Y iumping

wLfered

of the train windows. tortured that the guards really

)

did,

prisoners

concentration in books on the hut as I had read about it simple-minded as they appeared that the SS was as prisoners to defile that they enjoyed forcing

2£ me to

i.e.,

*££%£*£ mfantasy

expected to break their lacking wondered that the SS were so

Selves 'and way

Te

I

means they chose

in

what

that for torturing prisoners;

I

was without imagination. took to be their sadism these reflections was that What had most value for me in

therefore my to expectation; that things happened according from wha least partly predictable tore in'the camp was at had read, that experiencing and from what I I was already stupid than I had expected, hi individual SS was more a way small satisfaction and not which eventually proved the pleased with myself because true Most of all, I felt have of my mind (as I may ortureThad not driven me out general my my ability to think or

£

"nor changed P01

"n°rettoLct

either

these considerations

seem

futile,

but they in one

sum up

I should try to were important. Because if the whoh urn Sencewhat my main problem was during ,

would be: to protect my inner I spent in the camps, good fortune, I should regain n Ech a way that if, by any I was approximately the same person Hberty I would be self

it

then deprived -TTiTave

of libeSy.' So

it

seems that a

- how-h m rea uy I

severa! times referred camp exper ,ence so ;

concentration was when camps the same person I concentration a in spending time

split

was soon

^arned 1

£- «T

^

.

I

«>"""

^^^w^ xl war-: »=S?a-^sss cally

h

go-

such notions were ne everybody doubted his survival,

seriously.

rie nce

from the

imimiiiipiiiviiaiiishi':

Behavior

in

Extreme Situations: Coercion

(

m

)

upon me, the split between the inner self that might be able to retain its integrity, and the rest of the personality that would have to submit and adjust for survival. forced

Initial I

adjustment

have no doubt that

I was able to endure the horrors of and all that followed, because right from the beginning I became convinced that these dreadful and degrading experiences were somehow not happening to "me" as a subject, but only to "me" as an object. The prevalence

the transport

of such an attitude was borne out by many statements of other prisoners, although none would go so far as to say definitely that it was clearly developed as early as the time of the transport. Usually they couched their feelings in more

general terms such

as, "The main problem is to remain alive and unchanged," without specifying what they meant by unchanged. From additional remarks it became apparent that what was to remain unchanged differed from person to

person, but covered roughly that person's general attitudes values. Unfortunately, staying alive and unchanged was very difficult, since every effort to assure

and

implied inner changes, while dangered survival. All thoughts and feelings

extremely detached.

It

was

I

efforts

remaining alive to avoid change en-

had during the transport were I watched things happening

as if

in which I rook part only vaguely. Later I learned that many prisoners developed this same feeling of detachment, as if

what happened did not really matter to oneself. It was strongly mixed with a conviction that "This can't be truesuch things just don't happen." Not only during the transport but for a long time to come, prisoners had to convince themselves that this was real and not just a nightmare. Some of them were never wholly successful. In the same vein, many prisoners

behaved

existence in

They went

camp had no connection with so far as to insist that this

as if their

their "real" lives.

was the correct

atti-

£ _

(

The Informed Heart of their

own and

128

)

other persons'

tude Their evaluation have from what they would behavior differed considerably beha of o£ camp. The separation thought and said outside was so

v^r

patterns

and values

and outside

inside

about radcal and the feelings about it; oners avoided talking

camp

of

it

so strong that

it

was one

most

pris-

-™^S

have been The prisoners' feelings could that were "taboo." is hapwhat do here or ummed up as follows: "What I is perat all; here, everything to me doesn't count helping me as it contributes to as long and insofar

ZZ Sle

*

^^nSUl-, as

to threaten

erne "reality" to events so was a first s ep the prisoner's integration in th surviving ; new mechanisms for

ward developing denying ramn y g P Bv

overwhelming situations, they ^nat the same timem, somehow m ade bearable; but Thus world. experiencing the Luted a major change in reality to

re

managed

in

10 any other way.

P^r

"7^

fainted, the tran^o « no more observation: ounng killed » noted abov* though some got themselves « pa"Kuhr th.s to get killed. So in "^"acnkate We; on the conand pain intolerable unable to to ward off b 1 a pnsoners

^.^

™ ^**m ™

'"^^"InyoAe

endangered Later on, in follow orders was killed. to shoot customary but there it was not so an were dreams io Prisoners'

trary,

it

fainted; P Lmers

P"™ "JSlSL^SSffl- Combined ^. me *f^^*Xt ^ ^^

were not dealt with by tie fulfillment in such aggression and wish

on the SS. atle to revenge himself part.cular for revenge-where a relatively

minor abuse, never

S

exp e riences

av

^ »g

Interest

«»

the prisoner was reaso ns •

"^"Lg^

£

,

"""JJJ^Sm Once shoe* in

reactions previous experience with to fo dreams my expected camp, . dreams, the shock^becommg the shock experience >n on. d.»ppca™* ' and the dream finally app never events dreams the most shocking tt>

£W *^ffie* w» «

my

some had had some in

the

et i tio n of

^^ ^

and f

less

vivid

many

MMHnHHHHHH

Behavior

in

Extreme Situations: Coercion

(

129

)

Psychological reactions to events somewhat closer to the normal or familiar were distinctly different from reactions to extreme experiences. Prisoners seemed to deal with less extreme events just as if they had happened outside the camp. For example, if a prisoner's mistreatment was not of an unusual kind, he seemed ashamed of it or tried to deny it had ever happened. If a prisoner was slapped in the face it was more upsetting and embarrassing to him than a whipping. Prisoners hated guards at

who

kicked, slapped or swore

them much more than guards who had wounded them

For serious abuse, the prisoner hated the SS as such, but not so much the individual who inflicted the punishment. Obviously it was unreasonable to differentiate seriously.

way but it seemed inescapable. Prisoners felt deeper and more violent anger against particular SS guards for minor acts of cruelty than they felt against guards who in this

behaved much more

A

viciously.

tentative interpretation of this phenomenon those types of experiences that might have

is

that

happened during a prisoner's "normal" life provoked what would have been normal" reactions; for example, prisoners were particularly sensitive to being treated the way a harsh parent might act toward a helpless child. Punishing a child was within their "normal" frame of reference, but that they should be '

getting the punishment instead of giving it destroyed their adult frame of reference. So they reacted not in a mature,

but a childish way-wifh embarrassment and shame, with impotent rage, directed not against the system (as would have been reasonable) but against the random person who inflicted the punishment. Like children, they were unable to accept the fact that their treatment was part of the Gestapo system: neither inflicted for any personal reasons, nor inprisoners

if they had dreamed about what happened during the transport and could never find a single one who could remember having 8 dreamed about it.

(

The Informed Heart flicted

on them

as persons.

no

)

they Like children, they swore

how with the guard, knowing well were going to "get even"

^utl^oSe

that prisoners resented

minor

abuses,

silly children dealt with as if they were in which they were unconsciously they "atari than extreme ones, because

Lie Tat

them to th, statu and must obey blindly. Or

to reduce the Gestapo was trying

of children

t may

who have no

have been

coZ

rights

=

punishment the prisoner which is some receive friendly support, expect it for bemg rapped that for severe

expect to Tmfor, He could not reasonably

slap in the face a ruler, or for a like was great, he felt more Moreover, if the suffering so children are not punished than a child, because bit like a martyr suffering

on the knuckles with

^

In

I

hrutallv or he

t

may have

felt

a

supposed to accept his martyr-

is a cans" and tlJmartyr a man. like it take to dom, or at least

much

.

the

reactions, developed Prisoners, in their group they not abuses. Not only did same attitude toward minor or having openly blame the prisoner off" help, but would no stupidity-by by his own brought trouble on himself ge hmrself reply, by having let having made the right they short, careful enough. In caueht by not having been prisoner s the So behaved like a child.

accused

hun

of having took place not only being treated like a child fellow prisoners too. in the minds of his

oeTadation fn his own mind, but continprocess of adjustment As dme went on and the pactions their little difference in ued^Prisoners showed that offerings. But by to major or minor yd,,untegra stage of persona, t had reached a more advanced like hapless had come to feel somewhat tion, and all of them at

*%££**"

Gestapo relied mainly on ''"'ucTdes traumatization, the

autonomy

destroying all personal three other methods of touched on: that of forcing The first of these has just been

ntfliii:

Behavior

in

Extreme Situations: Coercion

(

131 )

prisoners to adopt childlike behavior. The second was that of forcing them to give up individuality and merge them-

an amorphous mass.

selves into

The

third consisted of decapacity for self determination, all ability to predict the future and thus to prepare for it.

stroying

all

THE PROCESS OF CHANGE Childlike behavior

To

be

filled

with impotent rage

is

a situation frequent

in childhood, but disastrous for one's

mature integration.

Therefore, the prisoners' aggressions had to be dealt with

somehow, and one of the safest ways was to turn it against the self. This increased masochistic, passive-dependent, and childlike attitudes which were "safe" because they kept the prisoner out of conflict with the SS. But as a psychological mechanism inside the prisoner it coincided with SS efforts

produce childlike inadequacy and dependency. It has been mentioned that prisoners were often mistreated in ways that a cruel and domineering father might to

use against helpless children. But just as even the crudest physical punishment much more often

parent threatens than he actually

inflicts

ness were created

it,

so childlike feelings of helpless-

much more

effectively

threat of beatings than by actual

by the constant During a real

torture.

beating one could, for example, take some pride in suffering manfully, in not giving the foreman or guard the satisfaction

No such emotional protection Was possible against the mere threat. While there were many days for many a prisoner when he went unharmed, there was hardly an hour of the day when neither he nor some of his friends were not being of groveling before him, etc.

(

The Informed Heart

132

)

o£ prisoners

The vast majority threatened with a lashing. but the without a pnblic flogging, wen hrough the camp going to Seamed threat that they were times daily. To have several their ears

^eo

the behind rang in

fact that one was one's peace with the o accept and make made punishment infantile constant under threat o£ such image as an adult than Tmuch harder to retain one's self

thrown at prisoners exc lu i m os prisoner foremen were by both the SS and and asshole the anal sphere. Shit sively connected with standard that it was rare

^relllSX, and

also the curses

.

*-P^

wer/so

™ ^^J^^orl w

addressed otherwise. It the level tney made to reduce prisoners to achieved. toilet training was wet and example, they were forced to

For

All

soil

themselves *«^™*

was regulated in the camp and elimination was strictly Id Buchenwa At event, discussed in detail.

» important daily forbidden

the entire to defecate during was repeatedly prisoner exceptions were made a wort day But even when a^guard get permission from who needed to eliminate had to was finished in ways that report to him when he

i

L

then

shattered his self respect.

same one requ red in formula he had to use was the guards, such as a for something of the all cases of asking emphasized both It was a formula that letter from home, etc. and abject dependence; for an absence of personal identity, number go: "Jewish prisoner a lewfsh prisoner it would (whatever prays to be permitted to

The

£U

obediently

the request was)."

descending oka

.

wave a conSome decent guards would remaps or But many made degrading

degr*i only be answered in a adf asked questions that could a white, the prisoner waiting for ing way; others would keep need Ins ,f or had been abject enough, as'if debating if he granted, permission to eliminate was really urgent. If

was

tmmmtm^mu

Behavior

in

Extreme Situations: Coercion

(

133

\

the prisoner, having relieved himself, had to report back much as an infant might report on having done his "duty." Here too it was if the education to

using the same formula,

cleanliness were being repeated again.

The power found

pleasure the guards seemed to find in having the to grant or withhold permission to visit the latrines its counterpart in the pleasure prisoners found in

visiting them, because they could usually rest there for a relatively safe from abuse. Actually they were not

moment,

always so secure because sometimes enterprising guards enjoyed interfering with the prisoners even there. Moreover, the latrines themselves were usually nothing

but a trench with logs

on which prisoners had public elimination was extremely degrading to Germans, because in Germany utter privacy when eliminating was the absolute rule, except for infants and very small children. This is contrary to American custom which does not always insist on privacy in this respect. Therefore, ento balance.

at either side

Any

forced observation

of

and by others was a demoralizing

experience.

Nor was this restricted to daytime, and the open latrines. In the barracks there were only rows of open toilets so that even in their living quarters they could never eliminate in privacy. Because of the small number of toilets, the brief time available and the large number of prisoners, they were also forced to form in long lines before each toilet. Those waiting, afraid they might not get a chance to use the toilet, nagged and swore at the prisoner using it to hurry up, to get done. Here the waiting prisoners treated the eliminating one

as

an impatient parent might urge

his infant to get off the

another camp situation that pushed prisoners into treating each other as incompetent children.

potty;

In this context

it

may be

repeated that

to address each other in the familiar

Germany

is

all

prisoners had

"thou" form, which in

never used indiscriminately except

among

small

(

The Informed Heart chudren.

On

the other hand,

M

)

**£££Z 5"JK2

o manner, including the use in the most obsequious dtl

childhood

to regression into Another influence adding do. New prisoners were given to behtior was the work tasks sucn were given nonsensical orisoners in particular after one place to another, and carryTn^ heavy rocks from

a

„

,hem whether

.heir

work

„*

«*C°1

^J*™

«_

labor on that forcing nonsensical orisoners This indicated speed then dedin was a deliberate effort to children. 1 here adults to obedient self respecting

TprSners from

Mass behavior at

The

ganld trig

Dachau

ZE>

(or-

between certain practices «* Buchenwald (in peno JjJJJduring that of all procedures

difference

depersonalization

19*7)^

Behavior

in

Extreme Situations: Coercion

(

135

)

At Dachau, for example, official punishment, as distinct from random abuse, was always directed at a particular individual. Beforehand he had a so-called hearing in the presence of a commissioned SS officer. According to Western legal standards these hearings were a farce, but compared to what later became standard procedure it showed great consideration for the individual because he was at least told what he was accused of and given a chance to refute the charges. If he knew what was good for him, he made no effort to defend himself. But he could add one or another detail and sometimes get off without punishment. Before flogging, he was examined by the camp physician, fairly empty procedure since the doctor rarely canceled the whipping, though he sometimes reduced the number of lashes. Even as late at 1939, prisoners at

another

Dachau

enjoyed some limited protection against too flagrant acts of injustice. When a guard shot or otherwise caused a prisoner's death he had to make a written report. That was all he had

but it was still something of a deterrent. Such consideration of prisoners as individuals, though small enough, was out of the question at Buchenwald, which to do,

reflected a later phase of National Socialism.

prisoners

For example,

who went insane-and

them-were no institutions,

there were quite a few of longer isolated, protected, or sent to mental

but were ridiculed and chased about until they

died.

But the

greatest difference was that at Buchenwald it was nearly always the group that suffered, not the individual.

At Dachau, a prisoner who tried to carry a small stone instead of a heavy one would have suffered for it; at Buchenwald the whole group including the foreman would have been punished. It was almost impossible for prisoners not to with SS

efforts to

cooperate reduce them to passivity inside a deindi-

vidualized mass. Both the prisoner's self interest and SS

The Informed Heart

v

_

same direction. To remain indepenhardships; to comply with dent implied dangers and many it prisoner's own interest, because the SS seemed in the mechanisms easier for him. Similar

pressure

worked

automatically

were

at

work

in the

made

life

in the inhabitants of

Germany

outside the

quite in such obvious form. concentration camps, though not punished as a Whenever possible the prisoners were

suffered for and with the group so that the whole group punishment. The Gestapo oerson who brought about the its it was in line with probably used this method because that because they hoped anti-individualistic philosophy and control the individual. It was in this way the group would prevent anyone from endangering in the groups interest to the fear of punishment was the -roup. As already noted, the group reality, which meant that

more° frequent than the individual more often and more asserted its power over the

group pressure was each prisoner was unusupractically permanent. Moreover, on group cooperation. This ally dependent for survival the group was constantly added further to a situation where

effectively than the SS. In

many

respects

controlling the individual.

becoming part following example may show how even in a situation that would of a mass made life bearable

The

insufferable. The example also otherwise have been wholly to do to force prisoners shows that sometimes all the SS had pressure of physical hardship. a mass was to increase the

into

Safety in the mass

when a snowstorm was a terribly cold winter night stand at attention withblowing, all prisoners were forced to twelve hours of work.ng in out overcoats, after more than no food in them. This was the the open, and with almost The attempts had been made to escape.

On

procedure whenever purpose was to motivate

all

inmates to prevent anyone from

HHHUHH

Behavior

in

Extreme Situations: Coercion

(

137

trying to escape since they for

it.

Roll

call

knew they would have to suffer did not end until the fugitives were found.

In this particular instance the prisoners were threatened with having to stand all through the night. After more than twenty prisoners had died of exposure the discipline broke down. Open resistance was impossible, as impossible as it was to do anything definite to safeguard

oneself.

Being exposed

to the

weather was a terrible torture; to see one's friends die without being able to help, and to stand a good chance of dying too, created a situation which obviously the prisoner as an individual could not meet sucTherefore, the individual as such had to disappear in the mass. Threats by the guards became ineffective because the mental attitude of most prisoners cessfully.

was now changed

Whereas before they had feared

for themselves

and

tried to

protect themselves as well as possible, they now became depersonalized. It was as if giving up individual existence and becoming part of a mass seemed in some way to offer better chances for survival, if not for the person, at least for the

group.

Again split

was as if what happened did not "really" happen There was psychologically, and in experience

it

to oneself.

\

between the figure

a

to

whom

things

happened and the prisoner himself who did not care and was just vaguely interested, a detached observer. Unfortunate as the situation was, the prisoners then felt free from fear as individuals and

powerful as a mass because "not even the Gestapo can kill us all tonight." Therefore, they were actually happier than at most other times of the camp experience. They did not care whether the guards shot them. They were indifferent to acts of torture. The guards no longer held authority, the spell of fear and death was broken. When this stage was reached, a quasi-orgiastic happiness spread among the prisoners who by forming a mass had defeated the Gestapo's effort to break them.

)

in

(

The Informed Heart

individual

kept the extremeness of the situation formaforced him into mass from protecting himself and circumstances that helped create b'ut there'were other easier to bear mass. Obviously it was a deindividualized in everyone found themselve unpleasant experiences when that meed everybody was conv "the same boat." Moreover, to pre were very slim; therefore his chances for survival

The

S

pointless an individual seemed before the prisplace took change in attitude shocked individualities, they had been

serve himself as

Before this

up their comrades. Once by the inability to help dying weakened and it became their personal existence, they abandoned hope for helpThis others. and help easL for them to act heroically was factor spirits. Another ngand big helped raised the actubecome free of fear, the SS had hit because they had to reluctant seem since the guards did

oners gave

:

ary

lost

shoot

Us powL,

all prisoners.

Because of

this,

or because by then

more than

fifty pris-

barwere allowed to go back to the oners had died, the men experiexhausted, but did not racks They were completely

some of them^a expectecL was over, but at the same They felt relieved that the torture could no longer free of fear and time felt they were no an mutual help. Each prisoner as ,onger rely strongly on the lost had he safer, but individual was now comparatively ence that

Lling

of happiness

safety that originates in

This event too was

belonging to a unified mass. way, discussed freely in a detached

pmoners

was restricted to facts; and a^ain the disdasion ever that night were hardly nough s and emotions during its details were infioned. The event itself and them, nor emotions were attached to ten, but no particular ,

^

*

did they appear in dreams.

The

fate of the

hero

punthe group was bemg In the example just given, (escape). But act of self defense

ished for an individual's

Behavior

in

Extreme Situations: Coercion

(

139

\

group pressure was no less effective when one prisoner made efforts to defend another. In some ways, heroism can be the highest assertion

of individuality. It was therefore contrary to Gestapo ideology to allow a prisoner to gain prominence by heroic action.

Since

all

those

who

political

prisoners were exposed

died because of

to

severe mistreatment,

though perhaps martyrs to or religious convictions, were not considered heroes it,

by other prisoners. Only those to protect other prisoners

who

suffered for their efforts

were accepted

as heroes.

The

SS was usually successful in preventing martyrs or heroes from being created, through its consistent suppression of all individual action or,

changing

if

this

was not possible, by

into a group

phenomenon. If a prisoner tried to protect others and it came to a guard's attention, the prisoner was usually killed. But if his action came to the knowledge of the camp administration, the whole group was it

always punished severely. In this way, the group came to its protector because he brought them suffering. The

resent

protector was also kept from rekindling respect for the infrom inspiring an appreciation of independence.

dividual, or

Moreover, he could never become a hero or a leader (if he survived) or a martyr (if he died) around whom group resistance might have formed.

Here

a further

example may illustrate. It concerns a Buchenwald in which men carried bricks to a building site, a "safe" command for which wealthy prisoners paid heavily with food, money, and cigarettes. 11 labor

command

at

" There were several ways of bribing fellow prisoners, prisoner foremen, and occasionally even guards. Easiest and most usual was to

use

money

etc.

Inose

many

of

sent from

home; money would buy cigarettes, extra food who received money regularly were the fortunate onesthose who never got any were glad to do favors in return for

Z7t m7 ey

bUy ci S arettes for exai*ple. Quite a few prisoners their lives V° by slowly deteriorating to the condition of "Muselmanner (a group to be discussed later) because they 7 craved cigarettes § so much that they sold part of their food rations to get th em or enough money to buy some. With even less to eat than other prisoners, lost

>

(

The Informed Heart

140

)

was little too heavy, and there load they carried was not o£ nnbribed kapo." Commands beating by the heavily (cartrip, loads on regular skUed labor carrying reasonable were by prisoners who columns) were often preferred which They had many reasons n any position to choose. Walking in twos or bearing on this example. return conversation possible, the these carriers did, made .spent w* time the without a load so that half wa prison sight and when the SS was n easy walking except the endless day divided trip ershldTo run Moreover, each Here unbroken. and otherwise insufferably long

The

£

^

Le

rde

;

m

which was 1

m

a

n

im dThad i\ODouy So

te

a watch. It

is difficult

6

Z^St^^Z

I;

to imagine crauee

what adch-

how soon

the

husband one,

OneVad fo woulu s guards, one spent one rnJth If driven by foremen or be might begin to slow down energy nc %y too sooV one limitea e other the « fini ched ofE " To know, on

mmm

Sd

not impulse to give up; but longer brought the in sight. for sure that relief was

life •

died. were punished, and finally a labor command. Prisoner foreman in charge of

if

one knew

Behavior

in

Extreme Situations: Coercion

(

141

\

was that each prisoner carried the same load, marched in the same formation, was inconspicuous as an individual and almost never singled out to be "finished off." If the SS was dissatisfied the whole command might be punished, but group punishments were not usually so fatal to the individual.

One up

day, in October 1940, one such carrier column of Jewish prisoners 13 was "peacefully" returning

delivering

its

load.

On

made after

way they ran into the SS Serrumor had it, was particularly cruel the

Abraham who, as Jews because his fellow officers made jokes about his name. Noticing the group of prisoners walking without a load he ordered them to throw themselves down in the geant to

muddy

He ordered them up and down again several times-a relatively harmless "sport." road.

In the column were two brothers from Vienna Hamber. In throwing himself down, one of

which

glasses

them

named lost

his

into a water-filled ditch beside the road Using the correct formula, he asked the SS man's permission to leave the formation and recover his glasses. This was a request within reason, even for the camp situation, and was usually granted. But by asking permission to act outside the group he became conspicuous. He was no longer an fell

anonymous member of a unit, but an individual. Having gotten his permission, he dived into the waterfilled ditch looking for his glasses. He came up without them, and dived again. Then he was ready to give up But now the SS man forced him to dive again and again. He had asked for permission to look for his glasses and he was told

keep diving until he found them. This was the SS man's for having granted a personal request. When Hamber was utterly exhausted and resisted further diving to

revenge the SS 13

man

The

insignia

forced

him down

into the water again

and

category a prisoner belonged to was plainly visible from V

worn on

his uniform.

w (142)

The Informed Heart

Among

about camp happenings.

camp

other reasons required not only «

J£2^.»5^iS. r^ SS that survival in the

essentials as they

wSch^eTon^e

some

to

disgust and reported it in group carrier reason the whole

ma nder

ab U

°n d

was

Only

™

place ing of what took avenge do what he could to felt obliged to brother die d a * te stated that his He i„ S g beyond h dive into the water th e SS

man

—

to

the

abom command had

was

dismissed. It

When

asked

don with no a

seen

he

not

just

what

-^-^X^ H mbe^^ ^

namely

in ^-mp.

.

f if

jr what they

to tell

^-xng and

that

o£ the

^"fj*

«»

a^ J^S^ SSK» S£££\S camp

of the

T r^^pLner,

k

happened,

^

t

enduranC e.

^

. ng imerroga

^

^

S

J^ ^

sta^d^

seemed to have been h a consequences,

s

^^

ia7observers.

The

had been Hied in front p rl soner prisoner this time a

-«J™?id claimed he

that only difference was

could bear witness. took place. In

™

before this incident was this occasion mcfle description of the of dun.. My

dosely

what

^

WJ««J ^den

been repor«d by

and

Erns^

its

previously formed consequences follow,

U

^ ^ ^^

ica.

J946>

pp

.

Behavior

in

Extreme Situations: Coercion

(

143

\

Later the same evening, Hamber was called to appear before the rapport leader. 15 By then he was in utter despair.

was clear that his courageous statement had not only endangered himself, but all his comrades in the It

labor group, including the kapo. They all feared the vengeance of the SS, but they also feared that their labor command might "explode," i.e., be dismissed and reformed with different prisoners. To lose a good command was disastrous. It was particularly disastrous for Jewish prisoners to whom most

good commands were closed. Moreover, even if the command were to continue, it would be some time before it was a "good" one again, for it was now in the limelight and would be ridden by the SS. In addition, the kapo would certainly behave differently. However bribed, he would never forgive the fact that one of them had made his comconspicuous and thus endangered him as a kapo and a person.

mand

Besides having lost a brother that day, to fear for his

own

life

and

for his labor

Hamber now had command, and

to

face the reproaches of his comrades. These were the consequences for a prisoner who tried to behave as an individual

and who put individual allegiance before personal and the safety of the group. Now Hamber

safety

realized the straits

his emotional courage

had led him to and was ready to But in a hurried conference with his friends in the barracks, it was decided that he could not retract his original recant.

statement

much

certain death for It

seemed better

as

he

him

now as

wished, because

having

falsely

it

would mean

accused an SS man.

to stick to the truth.

When

he presented himself for questioning, he was examined by the commander of the camp and other ranking SS officials. On his return to the barracks he reported that they had urged him to tell the truth, promising that nothing would h appen to him if he did, but that he would suffer "Senior SS

officer, directly

under the camp commander.

The Informed Heart punishment maximum " ned an ed ha

if

he distorted

affidavit giving a truthful

it.

He had

therefore

account of what had

from

Tw

this

when he returned a s late in the evening taken out the same night he was interview. In the middle of budding (the brought into the Bunker of his barrack and It was ten^da confinement and special torture).

t

solitary

chance. He did not he was next seen there by nor did he show stgns of hen seem to be in bad shape, came nrto the days later his corpse torture. But a few

later before

hanged himself, but version was that he had brought in used, and which was the towel he supposedly a man. too short to strangulate with the corpse, was far strangled in the Bunker, "or Tas obvious he had been On the contrary, it was quite any of this unexpected. " eliminated dangerous or order The SS always Hamber h,mfactor was that wUnesses The only unusual and this was widdy rebrought about his death,

"The' official

J*

m

™°™™?"

Se

S

careful

everyone to be even more peated as a warning to not to see, hear, or talk. three prisoners of the Approximately eight days later, taken down on the day commTnd (all numbers had been qu stmn were ordered to appear for of Hamber's killing) three days to the barracks, but^ inz They never returned

Wjfg*£ m ^™*%fi£tZ%£

the "ferTheffist of them came into been killed b had They corpse. a second and third tio n.

A

week

later

e.

It took aooui uu were similarly "disposed ot. command, and thus all possible who the feelings of those eliminated. One can imagine Never fate. then disposed of, knew the second group was committed suic.de. theless, not one of them group over the mdiThus SS-imposed control by the self counterpart in the pnsoner s vidual prisoner had its

IZlle

«««*JJ

^

Behavior

Extreme Situations: Coercion

in

(

145

)

and made group control nearly inescapable The all prisoners suffered daily kept them explosivee with justified rage. To give vent to it meant almost certain death. The group helped the individual to restrain interest

treatment

himself.

SELF DETERMINATION The

will to live

The question arises as to why, in the concentration camp, although some prisoners survived and others got

such a sizeable percentage simply died. Reports about the mortality rate in

tween_20% and 50%, but any

killed,"*

camps vary

the

overall figure

is

be-

misleading."

" These

include prisoners sent to extermination camps, group, of r 6 eXCtUted ° r " fi" iShed ""••' ""' >'-- who'died on the transports L° " r before reaching camp. "The following data (reported in Kogon, op. at., pp. 118 ff) cover a ..x month period in 1942, the only period for whicl such figures wire found after the war. These data probably held true for most

r

?

ray nri™

u

Type

(,e -

-*•

z—

— £ Z«

«*

the begi " ni n ,

S of the P«iod there were an estimated 300 000 CampS D ° Ubling the RgUres -adable " for at year P '"h t0 'y data we ca " Ornate that .

8

STrmoth 220 000 220,000

of

Znew

,

'

^ ""^

-

^

>

prisoners were sent to the camps makine ,„ P in 1942, making an accumu ated tota! of 520000 {m y£ar S Were r P I8 50 eXeCUted and H000 died ° ° When tthe h total. accumulated number of 520,000 is used, it appears that

^

-^

rr

less

than

2%

were

set free,

ing a total mortality of a

'

'

^

^J

-

'

3*%

little

were executed and 27% dfed yida over 30%. But these yeady staJt.Val

and fa «-»y. grossly mis/eadin'g ? De^p te prisoners added to the 300,000 already in the camps 6 " 1 52 00 priS ° nerS in the cam s ° ' *« end of the P year than ,there were at the beginning. Thus, the population of he camp varied little, comparing one random day of the yea^ with another On the gross average this meant a daily population of about 325 000 prisoners And this, not the 520,000, was the base figure from whi* deaths and Iterations were reckoned by prisoners. 1j s i„g bast yCh0l0giCa11

P he MOOO new 220,000 n !

veaTtr

'

"^

"

Zr

-

(146)

The Informed Heart

sions, sulii

while one was never without

Snce m The only

data

^Cl.

194

7 Rut

n

I

we have

is

for a six

tiiL »

hv

their

5.S cause

it

own of

it,

month period base

onjnv

.heir hi g„

deterioration.

=~S

«.omU>

'

'

'

r a nT"' o^th PoT^'

ZT,

camp;

at least three

'

f

?

"^

""t "^ertheless

'u

T V™

still

^

At

th ' S

refused

JeWS l ° ° ut of the '° b " ry **"• In mortal anxi hoping to escape Ae fate , hi «y. -to the ditch anS onto the e low pri onTr When " y Stnaika head Was barely visible the SS ordered * them to SW P' and unea »h him. Once Strzaska was on his feet the two u We r ered the *"*• a " d this time StrzLka obeyed the n e wed° co Command »° bury them-possibly because thev had Tot ™ , !T t 8 PCThapS eX P ecd they too would be s "S tha < r d a "the haT/" th S there reprieve, and whenTe ! di"h wa ditch, Strzaska

in

and the

7

two? J 7

^

i

^^^ ^^ ^T

SfKvetinutSefJ?hf^ f™ '

that

still

lay loosely over his

ordered them

bo^^akTn

"d'Xsf

^oSLSL*

8

-

eaMh

^^

S

°

*»

*

(

The Informed Heart As

years

concerned, I far as old prisoners are

160

)

can offer only

based on introspection observations but no findings variation in the time There was, of course, considerable make their peace with the possibility it took prisoners to camp. Some rest of their lives in the of having to spend the never probably soon, some became part of camp life rather more than ten years in the though they may have spent camps.

When

survive the

a

first

new

If

prisoner arrived he was told,

you

chance of surthree weeks, you have a good

survive three months you will viving a year; if you survive 22 , the next three years. (including casualties of During the first month in camp

actually death rate for newcomers the transport) the monthly close to 15%. In the fold-

was

at least

10% and

probably

no special mass persecutions-this ing month-if there were .rate amoog half; that is, the death figlre was usually cut in month might be some new prisoners during the second again third month it might where around 7%. During the barring from then on (again halved to about 3%. And death rate for the surviving mass executions) the monthly it remained, to 1% or less, where 5 % may have dropped :

,

L "

, by and large. due largely to the was rate death the in This reduction not survive the all those who could fact that by that time physical been weeded out. Those with r gors of camp life had were already-d«*L So such as heart conditions, .

disabilities,

develop personalities too rigid to were most of those with succumbed adjustments; they, too,

the necessary defenses and a lowered death rate was tin, n the first few weeks. The heightdie of the fines, and of both the survival of me die learned to adjust. By one ened chances for survival as for was a compelling reason same token the halt in deaths

lre

-TZTth. my on

time

^-«-^

r ne yeany estimation, was about 30 /c 1 later period of the camps. a to pertains 145 p.

SSltSf i«5

Behavior

in

Extreme Situations: Coercion

prisoners to change, to do it on their they meant to survive. 23

own

(

steam,

16l

and do

)

it

fast, if

The

chief concerns of

physically intact

and return

new

prisoners were to remain to the outer world the same per-

son who had left it. Therefore all efforts were directed toward these goals, and they tried to combat as much as possible any weakening of their maturity or self sufficiency

Old prisoners seemed mainly concerned with the problem of

how

to live as well as possible inside the

camp. Therefore

they tried to reorganize their personalities as well as they could to become more acceptable to the SS. Once they had embraced this attitude, everything that happened to them, even the worst atrocity, was "real." No longer was there a split

between a figure

to

who observed

in

prisoner ality

whom

things

happened and the

detachment. The split in personhad disappeared, but at the price of the prisoner's

personality

no longer being one of and passivity.

integrated. It dropped to a resignation, dependency, sub-

different, lower level:

mission,

Old prisoners could accept this because they could would ever return to the outer world which had grown strange to them. But once they had scarcely believe they

changed, there was every indication that they were afraid of retur nmg. They did not admit it directly, but from their an

3" old

l haVe ex P' ained here b V statistics has been described by prisoner as an inner experience

J***

" hin^t*' h m as he adjustedI,™ to IT" hfe in the camp r

no

DaChaU

T^Tma

V\

"^

"

on what «ent on in translation from page 1199 "» a 'DachaueJ prisoner

reflected

"

(

my

N°W

'

248H i' feel as 24814. I think and is fitting for a prisoner at Dachau Slowly a process of acclimatization has taken place in me. I did not reahze it then, but for life in the camp this is great progress because whoever becomes a concentration camp^ prisoner throughTnd through 0t S °°n C ° mpared t0 ** who^emaL a new*? ro°me" comer ins.de, and therefore one who externally and internally trie^m remain outs.de of it all. I began in the very Inter o my

^

'

'

P™°™

Le

prisoner -B. B.]

though

I

did not realize this at

all

at the

ife

time."

(

The Informed Heart

162

)

minds, only a cataclysmic

was clear that in their own revolution-could free then. event-a world war or world happened to them as they They seemed aware of what had had adapted to camp led in the camp. They realized they in then had brought a basic change iffe and that this'procesl

talk

it

by those was given dramatic expression live could convinced that no one few prisoners who became without years a certain number of in the camps longer than no longer could he attitudes so radically that hanging wa become, the person he once be cLLred, or again winch, for themselves beyond Therefore they set a time limit smce from was no point staying alive in their opinion, there

^^realization

L

consist of being then on life would simply men who could not endure concentration camp. These were developand behaviors they saw acquiring those attitudes date for fixed They therefore set a in most old prisoners.

P^TenLl

S SiS

-idde. One

^arrival °Jas

of

them

set the sixth

felt that in the camp because he five years. His friends

worth saving

after

him carefully on that One characteristic

day, but nevertheless difference

anniversary

nobody there

med

*£J*

cceeded

h

between old and new pus

could no longer evaluate cor oners was that old prisoners controlled world Whereas outside, non-Gestapo rec tly the

attitude toward the wor d prisoners tried to retain their was the nonreal, to old prisoners it of the camp as being considering took a prisoner to stop only eality How long it extent on great a to depended Seoutside the camp as real friends and emotional ties to his family the strength of his the degree his personality and renlth and richness of

new

he

of preserve important aspects o which'he was able to Ji«

m

The greater the areajrf old interests and attitudes. of them contrived to take advantage terests, and the more he -^T^itnessed

this

Kautsky, op.

p. 283.

cit.,

suicide.

A

very simdar suicide

is

deschbed by

Behavior

in

Extreme Situations: Coercion

(

m

)

camp situation, the better able he was to protect his personality against too early impoverishment. in the

Some indications of changes in attitude were- the tendency toward scheming to find a better place of work in

camp

the

rather than trying to contact the outer world

prisoners,

for instance,

would spend

all

their

New

money on

efforts to smuggle letters out of the camp or to get letters without having them censored. Old prisoners used their money to get 'soft" jobs such as clerical work in the camp

or labor in the shops where they at least had protecfrom the weather. This change also found expression in their dominant thoughts and topics of conversation: new prisoners were most concerned with life outside of camp; old prisoners were interested only in camp life. ft so happened, for instance, that on one and the same day, news was received of a speech by President Roosevelt denouncing Hitler and Germany, and rumors spread that one SS officer was going to be offices,

tion

replaced by another. New prisoners discussed the President's speech excitedly and paid scant attention to the rumors; old prisoners were indifferent to the speech, but devoted their conversation to the rumored

change in camp

officers.

When

old prisoners were asked why they spoke so little about their futures outside the camp, they often admitted they could no longer visualize themselves living in a free world, making decisions, taking care of themselves and their

tamilies.

The

attitude of the old prisoner toward his family

undergone a

significant change.

had

One

reason for this was the otal reversal of his status within the family. In line with

he Paternalistic structure of most German households, the family had been wholly dependent

much more

Now

so than

would be

on the man for decisions American family.'

true in an

he was not only unable to influence his wife's or his children s decisions, but was utterly dependent on

them

for

The Informed Heart release and to send taking steps to secure his the camp. so important to him in

him

the

money

that was

many families behaved dea matter of fact, although Durserious problems were created. cently toward prisoners, time, energy, spent a great deal of ing the first months they often free the prisoners, quite and money in their efforts to Later on they ran out of As

more than they could afford. were being made on their time money, while new demands wage earner meant great hardand energy. To have lost the that

should not be overlooked hip for Se family. Also, it political activito the husband's the wife had often objected Now as dangerous or too time consuming. ties as being too at best Gestapo, an unpleasant task she pleaded with the I

that it was the prisoner they told her repeatedly had a hard time he was imprisoned. Wives

^J

s

own

fault

finding^

were member was plovment because a family at ties difficu had from public relief; their children having that many came to resent school, etc. So it was natural camp. a family member in the compassion, because Their friends showed them little suspect, they

XL

developed its own defenses which camp, most important of against the concentration to the

German population

at large

was denial. As discussed in the believe that prisoners in the

last

camps

chapter, they refused had not committed out-

such punishment. rageous crimes to warrant device the SS used to Another subtle, but most effective wite prisoners, was to tell the alienate the family from the perwere relatives only closest

or other relatives (usually was. case), that not only mitted to plead the prisoner's the camp, but hat that he was the prisoner's own fault there long ago had he behaved he would have been released relatives recriminations in letters; as lie should. This led to outbehave better, winch often pleaded with the prisoner to of his camp existence. him, considering the conditions

m

raged

—^Ti7c

pleading for the

to make Gestapo had numerous deviees make .t easy for the famdy prisoner seem senseless, and

>n

Behavior

in

Extreme Situations: Coercion

(

165

)

He, of course, could not answer such accusations. At the same time he was resentful because what probably enraged him most was the family's own ability to act and move about freely when he was so helplessly unable to act for himself. In any case it was one more experience separating the prisoner from his few remaining ties to the non-camp world. These and similar attitudes were reflected in letters to and from home, but often mail for

prisoners came irreguNaturally, letters contained hopes and promises of reunion, sometimes because the Gestapo iiad made promises to the family, sometimes because relatives were trying to cheer the prisoners up. larly or

not at

all.

But when promises did not materialize, they led to still greater disappointment, and added resentment toward home. In another effort to cut prisoners off from all connection with the outer world, the SS forbade them to have pictures of their relatives; if they got hold of any pictures, they were taken away and the prisoners were punished for keeping them. So actually a slow alienation took plate between

men and

the

their families.

But for the new prisoners, this process was only beginning. As recollections of the family grew dimmer, this strongest bond linking prisoners to the outside world grew weaker. The resentment of those who, rightly or wrongly, felt deserted by their families only reinforced it-

the

The

emotional support they got from the ouside to adjust to life in the camp. Therefore, old prisoners did not like to be reminded of less

more they were forced

preservation to separate itself from the prisoner. They would set a date" for the prisoner's release, only to inform the relatives on that date ha some new m,sdeed made freedom impossible. Often not even hat mueh reason was given for misinformation. My mother was evera" 7 mes g,ven a date for my release, each one untrue

^

'

g,

s^tleT to

a

Vien

T*"

rUnarOUnd

ra

**

~«

»

^TS

Once she

me a ' ready a " d to 8 fOT Another InTheHime time Ih she was encouraged to travel from Vienna the town closest to Buchenwald, either to receive me on or at least have a visit with me. She presented herself

"^noto

Weimar

my in

release

We

mar'

*" ™» * **«S

(

The Informed Heart

hem

)

they spoke about liked to get detached way. They still it wa in a very they because important to them bit it was not very them. Also, they with the events related

their families

££.

166

and former

friends.

When

m

had lost touch the those living outside had co- to hate all "enpyed life as to h\e as it noum g world which continued

^who

*~™£?Z^£Z£L

J,\hose

=£-jK-2SK£vE53 ataut

*^JJ^J^

they were compldmng doubted they were go ambivalence, they never left ott. them just where they had

when

living with

Shad

F

to continue then:

;o

S

etlllTy, and seemed

their state of dejection;

nresent P

to

«*

**

been,

prisoners seem important people. Old

pWor

1

be trying to know how important de ahve by letting others they were the implication being

^uLrT^e LeeP theh

P™^ ^

^^^^i^^ hoped

Similarly they

3- - before.

g

to

compare

f^Xir with

it

former their termer

compared

magnificent (and anything was too depressing. probably existence) was

to

then

prisoners, psycho a difference to For sue reasons it made by just a wire fenc whether the camp was enclosed fogicall whether surrounding world) or (Which let them see the ,

Behavior in Extreme Situations: Coercion

(

167

solid wall blocked their view.

preferred by sion

new

prisoners

from the world, while

The wire fence was usually who tried to deny their excluthose who preferred the addi-

tional wall sought protection

from nostalgia. On labor assignments outside the camp, prisoners were always in contact with some segments of the outside world, but were also exposed to the sometimes curious but of the passerby.

i

often hostile stare

Here again, old prisoners detested the experience while newcomers enjoyed seeing civilians, particularly women and children. Probably as a result of malnutrition, mental anguish, and ambivalence toward the outside world, prisoners (ended to forget names, places and events of their past lives. Often they could not recall the names of their closest relatives even while remembering insignificant details. It was as if their emotional ties to the past were breaking, as if the ordinary order of importance, of the connections of experienc es was no longer valid. Prisoners were quite upset about this loss of memory for things past, which added to their sense of frustration and incompetence. This too was a process which had only begun for new prisoners, and was nearly completed in most old prisoners. All prisoners engaged in a great deal of daydreaming. Both individual and group daydreams were wildly wishfulmling and a favorite pastime if the general emotional climate was not too depressed. Nevertheless, there was a marked difference between the daydreams of new and old prisoners In general, the longer the time a prisoner had spent in camp, the less specific, concrete and true to reality were his daydreams. This was in line with the expectation that only such an event as the end of the existing world order would lib-

erate them.

They would vaguely daydream of some coming cataclysm Out of this earth shaking event they felt sure erf emergTg as the new leaders of Germany, if not

the world. This was th!

(

The Informed Heart least to

which

168

)

them. Alongside of their sufferings entitled

went a great vagueness about these grandiose expectations serve; or what ends it would he namre of their leadership, going nebulous about how they were hey were even more they daydreams private lives. In their o arrlnge their future bu future leaders of the to emerge a^ prominent their would continue to live with they were less certain they role their >» able to resume wives and children, or be effort to these fantasies were an bands and fathers. Partly the and partly a confession of deny their utter dejection, regain to them office could help that only high public win back their own good within" their families, or

Certain

hm

Stag

standfng

opinion of themselves.

maturity prisoners to relinquish In the process of forcing not influence. The group did

strong the group exercised a ambiva private daydreams or his prisoner's with a

ntertoe family, but le nce toward his

it

asserted

its

V™™*?£

from normal adult be who objected to childlike deviations to the to an absolute obedience havior. Those who objected an group the security of the guards were accused of risking th SS without foundation since "accusation that was not individual misdeed. punished the group for the 1 than behavior was more inescapab regression into childlike because imposed on the individual other types of behavior psyinner s prisoner enforced: by the SS, by the it was triply his fellow prisoners. chological defenses, and by developed types of The result was that most prisoners

Ther^ :

infancy or early youth.

of behavior more usually characteristic othe, slowly, developed of these behaviors S

r

:

:

increased only in imposed on the prisoners and

^p"^

diately

we« mime

.tisfactions children, sought their ones. If real worse, in contradictory in empty daydreams, or the most primitive atiZtLs were available, they were only Like children, they lived kind eating, sleeping, resting.

Behavior

in

Extreme Situations: Coercion (

169

)

in the immediate present; they lost their feeling for the sequence of time, they became unable to plan for the future or to give up tiny immediate satisfactions to gain greater ones in the near future. They were unable to establish durable relations. Friendships

developed as quickly as they broke up Prisoners would, like children, fight one another tooth and nail, declare they would never look at one another or speak to one another, only to become fast friends within minutes.

They were boastful, telling tales of what they in their former lives, or how they had contrived

men

or guards. Like children, they felt not at

ashamed when

it

became known

that they

had achieved to cheat fore-

all set

had

back or about

lied

their prowess.

Final adjustment

dJ^ T

f a " thCSe Cha " geS '^ no means f »"y ProM°prisoners, duced in all old was a personality structure willing and able to accept SS values and behavior as its own. Of these German nationalism and the Nazi race ideology seemed easies to accept. It was notable how far even well-educated political prisoners went in this identification. At one time, for instance, American and English newspapers were full of stones about cruelties committed in the camps. The SS punished '

prisoners for the appearance of these stories, true to its policy of group punishment-for the stories must have originated in reports by former prisoners. In discussing this event old prisoners insisted that foreign newspapers had no business

h7 7?

J™

German instituti

it

if,

«

during the twice

they reaJly had

J^

wdi

attention or given a snappy salute. They prided themselves on being as tough, or tougher, than the SS. In their identifi-

WCnt

10 C ° Py

One O^of^hT of the games ^/"r. played by

SS IdsUre time a « ivi «es.

the guards was to find out

who

(

The Informed Heart

172

)

a com-

longest without uttering could stand being hit the they copied by old prisoners, as if plaint This game was without repeating the experience were not hit often enough as a game. while enforce some nonOften an SS man would for a a whim of the moment. Usually sensical rule, originating in some old forgotten, but there were always it was quickly observe it and tried to enforce prisoners who continued to lost interest. Once, for on others long after the SS had ft

example, an SS

and found

He

that

ordered

all

inspecting the prisoners apparel inside. their shoes were dirty on the

man was some

of inside and out prisoners to wash their shoes heavy shoes bewater. Treated this way, the

with soap and never repeated, and many came hard as stone. The order was out the first time, since the prisoners did not even carry it for gave the order, stood around SS as was often the case, prisUntil he was gone, every a few minutes, and then left. out the order, after which oner busied himself with carrying prisNevertheless there were some old they promptly quit. thento wash the insides of oners who not only continued being as so do to all who failed shoes every day but cursed

all prisoners believed firmly that negligent and dirty. These behawere desirable standards of rufes set down by the SS

camp. or been forced to accept, Since old prisoners had accepted, to the SS, many of them seemed a childlike dependency on were they people some of the

vior, at least in the

want

to feel

that at least

images were just and kind. accepting as all-powerful father they also had positive Therefore, strange as it may seem, positive and negatoward the SS. They divided their feelings

tive feelings in such a

way

were that all positive emotions relatively far up in the hier-

concentrated on a few officers ever on the archy of the camp, but hardly self.

They

insisted that

hid feelings of justice

commander him-

officers behind a rough exterior these to and propriety. They were alleged

Behavior

in

Extreme Situations: Coercion (

m

}

be genuinely interested in the prisoners and even tryin* in a small way, to help them. Since not much of these assumed feelings became apparent, it was explained that they had to be well hidden or there would be no way for them to help The eagerness of some prisoners to find reasons for such clatms was sometimes pitiful. A

around the cleaned the

fact that of

mud

whole legend was woven two SS inspecting a barrack, one had

off his shoes

before entering. He probably was interpreted as a rebuff to the other, and a clear demonstration of how he felt about the concentration camp. These examples, to which many could be added, suggest how, and to what degree, old prisoners came to identify with the enemy, and tried to justify it somehow in their own eyes But was the SS really just an enemy any more? ff so, the identification would be hard to understand. The SS was in fact the callous, unpredictable enemy, and remained so. But

did

it

automatically, but

it

the longer prisoners survived in the they became old prisoners

camp-that is, the more lost hope of any other life and tried to make a go of the camps-the more prisoners and SS found areas in common where cooperation was better for both of them than being at cross purposes. Having

who had

to live together, if one can call such areas of common interest. For example, one or several

it

that, led

with necessity to

barracks were usually super-

n0 " COmmissioned SS officer, called a blockleader. I Each h," blockleader wanted his barracks to be beyond i

reproach should not only be inconspicuous, but the one found fn best order; this would keep him out of trouble with superiors or even gain him a promotion. But It

2

who find

d th had the same nterest; beyond reproach, and thus .

it

the prisoner ers

that

^

avoid severe penalty for themselves, fn this sense they shared a common fnterest I his was even more true of the workshops. The N C O charge of a production unit was vitally interested'

m

that

The Informed Heart was in top shape when it everything in his workshop be great that the output should be inspected by his superiors, etc

The

prisoners,

tor

their

own

reasons,

had

identical

the camp a prisoner had been in interests. And the longer SS came or the more a particular the more skilled his labor, with well up show command to rely

on

it

for

making

his

the area o£ common interest. his superiors, the greater bricklayers at Buchenof a Jewish command of

The

fate

tens of thousands of Jewish a telling example. While camp this group of some forty prisoners were killed in the

wald

is

made losses of life. The group, Tews survived with only a few beginning decided at the up of Jewish political prisoners, the shortage of steel, concrete etc., of the war that with the bricks or its command would soon return to using camp

be assigned to the bricklayers were scarce they command, and since skilled bricklayers throughout the war. While were considered unexpendable most of this command other Jews were destroyed,

buildings.

nearly

They managed

to

all

served the SS

they on the day of liberation. Had all. But served themselves not at poorly, they would have skill pride in their bnckaying had they taken professional their having to work for the SS, without continuing to hate and they with it resistance might have died,

was

alive

inner

old the adjustments made by In closing this summary of again that all these changes prisoners, I wish to emphasize

great indilimitations, that there were old and of that in reality the categories

worked only within vidual variations,

Despite what I have prisoners were always overlapping. reasons forcing old prisoners said about the psychological that with the SS, it must be stressed to conform and identify there were also strong dewas only part of the picture;

new

this

"l^Tnarallel

to this

development may be found

in

labor, exploitation of Polish slave Jewish property, the

the situation

etc.

Behavior

in

Extreme Situations: Coercion

(

175

\

fenses within them that worked in the opposite direction. All prisoners, including those old prisoners who identified with the SS on many levels, at other times defied its rules. In doing so, a few occasionally showed extraordinary cour-

many more retained some of their decency integrity all during their stay in the camps. age,

and

and

5 behavior in Extreme

Situations: :

QJefeen$es

L.

IN THE CONCENTRATION CAMP was extremely complex. The pressure to obey, conform, submit to the SS, and change one's entire personality and behavior, was obvious and visible. The prisoners' counter efforts

at trying to forestall

change the camp,

to

enforced adjustment,

ward

all

off

these

inner changes, to

had

to

proceed in

secrecy.

While the Gestapo used mainly pressure to achieve

its

physical

and psychological

goals, the prisoners tried to counter-

act with organizational defenses,

and more subtle psychoBut often their efforts to defend themselves found them deeper enmeshed in the system. Just as the SS' desire for efficient workshops led to areas of common interest between SS and prisoners, so the prisoners' efforts to logical ones.

defend themselves through prisoner organizations forced to cooperate with the SS. The resulting contradiction was that the more effective the organization,

them

the better

it

also served the SS. 1

For e xample, the largest growth of power among prisoner 1 e ^e then, ^ to r ;h. coercive resistt the

^

intereStin S P^llel to all organizational efforts mass society. For example, it is not unusual to see a professional group trying to defend i£ independence and se f terest against encroachment by the state. But to be effective it mu often wage battle on two fronts, each one defeating the purpose of

e^

m

(177

)

(

The Informed Heart the beginning of foremen coincided with extermination. menuuon and the policy of

human

178

)

experi-

««£»*;

kapos n ont that once prisoner Sport on the camps, points pense typhoid in a position to d 1S he camp hospital were and thus those who needed it ernm they could give it to withhold it from those who ore^ve their livesf they could doses to those they they could give lethal

needed

SE t i

-d

A

liquidate.

prisoner's

P^-J^ to^ " 1

to protect and always one of being able without killing protect or to kill-because of bein- able to made the posiretain power. This one s enemies one did not prisoner members of the ruling

r andTe n

policies of all

otouo highly ambiguous.

"Tut

low did

large that prisoners to a comthat this gave rise to a

come about

it

the SS; degree ran the camps for

hier-

of this that the class structure plex Prisoner hierarchy; erable, for We miserable, if not literally into lowest da, archy out of the Ise who could not lift themselves

We

hoped to rise into that prisoners who of prisoner society; advantage of, even t'lngher strata'betrayed, took Is (P°l^a groups that the different reated fellow prisoners; win or hold against each other to

m

Sminals etc.) conspired accepted so doing they onrtheir positions; and that in of the SS ? the values and behavior their own much of

The

as

prisoner elite

As

early as 1936

appeared some prisoner organization

thetncentrationcamp^^

July-August 1947, p. 158.

in

Behavior in Extreme Situations: Defenses erect

and maintain the camps, and

(

for other

179

more complex

assignments.

But labor asked for foremen. As a ruling shunned manual labor; they were a warrior

elite,

caste,

command

to

the laboring masses. So

it

the SS

meant only

was easy for prisoners

to volunteer as

foremen. Here it must be borne in mind that certain work assignments offered what seemed like irresistible chances for power, safety and privilege. Classes were not based on economic services rendered to society and were therefore not anchored in significant functions. They rose or

by whim of the SS. For example, the division between skilled and unskilled labor which often meant the difference between life and death to a prisoner, was a division of "class" stratification inside the camp, not one of skill. "Middle class" prisoners were assigned to commands of skilled labor whether they had the skill or not. If they had it, fell

good.

U

in the

camp; in

this

way

If not,

they acquired

prisoners

became electricians or surgeons as needed. In the same way, by becoming "nearly middle class," the forty Jewish political prisoners just described became bricklayers. Kapos handed out labor assignments almost wholly on the basis of political interests or personal gains. But assignments

to skilled labor were the exception, and reserved for a favored minority. Unskilled labor, entailing the greatest danger and suffering, was the permanent fate of the majority of all prisoners, and of almost all prisoners at one time or another. Since unskilled labor was

easily shifted

to another because

none of them

\

from one task any training,

called for

unskilled labor was always expendable. From this dreaded fate derived the original power of the prisoner elite

In practice, the working of the prisoner hierarchy proved that a handful of SS men could actually rule tens of thousands of hostile prisoners, could even induce prisoners to

(

The Informed Heart

180

)

without ever becoming control others tor them fa classes, despite die Zgerou, The very inception o£ and in theory prisoners were communists, that most leading indicates to a classless society,

WOrk and

^-^

omSd

succumb to theP^u groups of the population enough. There were society if it is strong of the total mass development. several reasons tor this use die prisoners in power could As already indicated, order but protection to prisoners,

resistant

positions to give limited

Tstay

in

ice".hey

had

tnost of allto serve

£ S^SS^S-" ^1,

m £»«

SS considered shorty

^^

gang they were in barrack block or labor comings in the barrac antidpatmg h P ende up so that often they

fn^d m1ni thVsfmignt make

^

a

the majority or the SS While this was true for

gre- and *,, ^-^ "T^i:Z'S P ^, ki/ ™rHrularlv °d mem"SuS^S^bS^to »,h

-

with the onset ot the

^

a

of

ana and aTood b^co'miand was day^or better food ration each fnd so was getting a camps gre As the institution of the even once in a while.* -7i5. of life and death to* ,?

i^c lite

S dZ

Rut even before

always a matter of life

came mto main fare of the day. It charge of in prisoner the which with got a fuU .ache,

that, just to find

^j£XjEH& *?J™^ a

barrack

g out His .

l.

^ZjtLZlZ*

friends

mea( and

or otherwise gained

Behavior larger

mass

in

Extreme Situations: Defenses

and more elaborate, they became more

(

181

)

of a miniature

With each step, more members of the prisoner became more powerful, and more of them had

society.

aristocracy

be befriended for survival. Let me give an example. Earlier in this chapter I recounted how hundreds of prisoners died one winter night or soon after, as a result of exposure on the parade grounds while the SS hunted two escaped prisoners. to

The escape had been discovered early in the afternoon. The SS called in the kapo of the labor gang the two escapees of their barracks block,

worked in, the chief and the doyens of the camp (who

held the very top positions in the prisoner aristocracy) to help them speculate on where the two might be hunted Through them, other leading prisoners learned what lay in store for the

whole camp, and rumors spread

like wildfire.

Block chiefs

who felt a responsibility to prisoners in their block, and who felt they could rely on them not to be betrayed, now informed them of the situation. Immediately frantic preparations began among those few who were able though they risked severe punishment if discovered. This was a. chance many were willing to take. Very little time elapsed between the time the vast majority of prisoners returned from work and the time they had to report at the assembly grounds to begin standing at attention. The main problem was to provide oneself and others with to,

some

tection against exposure,

and

pro-

to ready things for prisoners

returning from work so that they could prepare themselves few minutes.

for the ordeal in a

Prisoners were forbidden to wear anything but their

prison uniforms and one woolen sweater; only kapos, block chiefs, etc., were given and allowed to wear overcoats Frequent inspections kept prisoners from owning any clothing

exceptjhejcanty underwear issued, and the prison u niform, to^ this wo~u7d mean only hot brew without any bits of solid food

« 1*2

(

)

The Informed Heart

£^£*££ ^ ^I«*^^3^£E -£ XrS

Any attests

to

In liew of what

would miss

it.

keep warm in lay ahead, U seemed

«

to r

depending on pnsone,; dann, some

This meant standmg

all

night^inabit

Some prisoners^kept without having eaten. shelves but they of food on their and t the end of work the barracks between Nevertheless, call assembly.

work

sma

^^g^t ^ ^"^ oh f™^ -J?

poo they could find, and

of roll-

£ood and

afternoon, col ecu in the early

pap-

Pp

in

ed,

have at leas :, b.te their group could OTe his umform to stuff under quite simple, and All this sounds

r

i

m

J J^ wo

^

ould have been,

it

in the scarcity conditions t ,i,p ntter^arcit except for the uttet collecting

enough waste paper

r

camp.

1

here,

uon

g

each ot tne icw more provide a dozen or to nrovide ° for

when

inow £ „i, f f..i task Now, was a frightful task, work had and did risk leaving it asked with added protection, into SS ing enu,ty. Doors emptied (the bags of cement

^^Z^ ^^£"££ vyPP

available), the the best insulation not be noticed the theft would

ceme

Q

.,/was

P

^^

^^

T*^*?'^ pmo ners and jeho-

time

for assembly

came, -ost Pohucal

a

j

Behavior

in

Extreme Situations: Defenses

(

183

)

who did not report them for leaving work, and smaller fry in the prisoner hierarchy, such as room chiefs, the kapos

and

store keepers.

On

such occasions,

not in danger,

when

their

own

status

and

safety

was

many

ruling political prisoners helped others as well as they could. This was less true for nonpolitical foremen, and not at all true for the thousands of asocial prisoners

whose block chiefs felt little sympathy for them, put no trust them to keep their help a secret and thus offered no help. So that night they suffered considerably more than most in

other prisoner groups.

On

this occasion the fact that

prominent prisoners were

know" was an advantage to some prisoners. But there were many other occasions when their greater power led to "in the

questionable practices.

Ambiguous power All ruling prisoners were responsible for the destruction

some prisoners, to save themselves, their friends, or other members of their group. But everything was deemed necesof

sary, ers,

including the extermination of whole groups of prisonit was a question of staying in power. So it came

when

about that some of the political groups formed to protect fellow prisoners ended up giving full, if heavy-hearted cooperation to the extermination of thousands of prisoners in order to save some of their own group.

The ambiguous attitude prisoners went

of the prisoner elite toward other

beyond motives of

safety, or economic and Often equally attractive was the psychoappeal of power.

social advantages.

logical

Firstly, all prisoners, including those forming the ruling group, were so devoid of true autonomy and self respect that they craved it to an unheard degree. So those who could, clung tenaciously to such chances for exerting power as

The Informed Heart

(

184

>

action. Power and influpassed for genuine independence of matter what ence-power at any price, and influence for no

whose purpose-were extremely appealing in an environment prisoner the individual. No sole purpose was to emasculate of freedom less if he had lack felt really free, but he felt the absolute power to make others jump. down upon lower class prisoners was Secondly, looking

against one's own fears. an important psychological defense shocked when we Like my fellow prisoners, I was deeply

numbers of work-shy entered Buchenwald and saw the large the disintegraskeletons; prisoners who looked like walking showed so obviously. tion of their bodies and personalities The prisoner were also repelled to see them eat refuse. well fed, our camps group we belonged to had entered the with a reserve of strength health well taken care of, in short living. The asocial prisoners, built up during years of good society, had no mostly from submarginal strata of

We

coming

such reserves on which to draw. might become Seeing them made every prisoner afraid he was to anxiety quiet such like them. The easiest way to never was made of "different stuff" and could believe one

subhuman stratum of low. Fear of sinking into that "moslems"-was a powerful prison society-the asocials, the them. It could be incentive to fighting a class war against dangerous-as carrationalized because they were actually desperate conditions led them riers of disease, because their prisoner had so little that to steal (and even a middle class bread could mean life or the loss of a sweater or a loaf of and nihilism were condeath), and because their desperation and to keep up one's own morale,

fall so

tagious. It

was

difficult

example. one hated them because one feared their elite, comThis may explain the behavior of the prisoner particularly munist or not. As with most ruling classes, and empathy all lost they those groups newly come to power, these lower class with the fate, the feelings and suffering of

Behavior

in

prisoners.

They no

Extreme Situations: Defenses

(

185 )

longer understood what it did to them to be exposed to the worst miseries of the camp, to hard labor, bad weather, lack of rest, and the inability to care for their bodily needs. The fact was that they could not afford to understand it because any softening of attitude toward

common prisoners would soon have been noted by the SS and they would swiftly have fallen from power. So their own survival depended on becoming and remaining insensitive. In

self

off

from these lower

protection they sought and found reasons for standing class prisoners.

They

criticized

them

for

a lack of restraint that threatened the camp with contamination and epidemics. They disparaged them for drinking

contaminated water at a time when nothing but boiled water should have been used.

What

they could not afford to recognize was that privileged prisoners were reasonably well supplied with food and

boiled water and hence had an easier time restraining themwhile most others were suffering such hunger and

selves,

thirst

that considerations of health,

else's,

were feeble compared

to the

their

own

or anyone

overwhelming pressure

of their need.

A chiefs

example was the attitude of block and room toward those starving prisoners who scavenged for

typical

potato peelings in the refuse containers. Strong in their normal weight of some 170 pounds, they whipped (for their own good) these miserable shadows who were down to some

90 pounds for transgressing the camp rule against eating refuse. True, many prisoners acquired serious stomach disorders after eating food scraps that were often in a state of decay. Nevertheless, such attitudes of righteousness on the part of well fed prisoners seemed outrageous to those who

were starving. For all this, the prisoner elite, except for some of the criminals, were rarely without a sense of guilt over the advantages they enjoyed. But given their striving for survival

(

The Informed Heart

I 86

)

justify to was a greater need to the most this usually came members o£ ruling classes for themselves. This they did as to pointing to their greater value centuries have done-by education, to influence, thetr

society because of their

power

their cultural refinement. representative. For example Raton's attitudes are fairly enjoyed stillness of the night he he took pride that in the

while in an adjacent room the reading Plato or Galsworthy, unpleasprisoners, while they snored air reeked of common privileged his to realize that only antly He seemed unable gave experiments in human position, based on participation used then he an enjoyment him the leisure to enjoy culture, read at position. He was able to to justify his privileged

exshivering, nor stupid with night because he was neither by felt attitude of superiority haustion, nor starved. The on apparent in some of his comments privileged prisoners is "Psychological complicaof the prisoners: the psychology P higher only in those who were of ions o impoflance existed The. eduor classes," he wrote. value as individuals, groups, for life prepared after all, not cated classes, he added, were, that be to The inference seems in the concentration camp** or did to life in the camps, ordinary prisoners were suited psychological complications.

not suffer any of Kogon, who was These remarks are no indictment concerned and conscientious obviously one of the more camp group, deeply disturbed by

members

of the ruling

depended on keeping his posihad to find means to privilege and to that end he can who is basically decent and sensitive

conditions. tion of justify

do

it.

But

his

own

life

No man

otherwise.

,

an often another example of the truth of This then, but the SS camps, not the repeated comment: that in the The SS, sure of was the prisoner's worst enemy.' is

prisoner 4

5

Kogon, op. Kogon, op.

cit.,

p.

cit., p.

302 311.

ff.

Behavior

in

Extreme Situations: Defenses

superiority,

its

had

than the prisoner

less

need

to

(

187

demonstrate and prove

who could never

)

it

about it. The SS descended on prisoners like a destructive tornado that struck several times a day, and one lived in constant dread of them; but there were hours of respite in between. Prisoner foremen exerted pressure without letup; one felt it continuously— during the day at work, and all night in elite

feel secure

the barracks.

Individuals

who

played leading roles in factional war-

fare and who belonged to the prisoner aristocracy sometimes admitted with resignation that prisoners could have done

much more ted

it,

one another, and the SS would have permitcondoned it, or been unable to prevent it, if the for

terrible internecine class

war among prisoners had not con-

stantly interfered with such efforts.

Basically then, only the SS benefitted fare

among

prisoners for survival

from the inner warand positions of power.

In the fully developed oppressive mass state even the victim's efforts to organize in self defense seem to work toward personality disintegration.

show why this had to happen when overwhelming organization, the SS, was pitted against a very weak one whose members felt they could only succeed by cooperating with the powerful opponent. It may be It is relatively

easy to

a single

harder to realize that the same held true for the individual prisoner's psychological defenses.

PSYCHOLOGICAL DEFENSES Early rationalizations

Even sooner than any recourse to organization, each prisoner mustered his own psychological defenses to protect him from the impact of the concentration camp. Mention has

/

The Informed Heart

7

00


e conmanner were those of a man who comand business, an unusually sidered in government

cisely

™^^;

thorough if petent and reliable administrator, that never uttered a woid The painfully correct witness a of terms the murder in might offend- he spoke of mass

™*out^

gruesome details, Technician, without any moralist or of the sad IS t the eloquence of the ,,'

lH ,, S( .

(

m

cleanliness,

.

.

.

A^fanausrt

^f™

work efficiency order by the Hoess was constantly shocked hard

,

failure of

The Fluctuating Price

of Life

/

247

)

Third Reich to provide adequate transportation, food, medical and sanitation supplies, and supervisory personnel the

for

its

victims ...

riors for

above as to

more

was always bothering his Berlin supeand brutal personnel, slowdown in the shipments of new arrivals so

all for a

allow

He

supplies, for less corrupt

him

gas chambers

to build a more and crematoria

efficient processing

for

machine:

the unemployable,

and

amenities for the employable in his work camps." 5 Thus the business correspondence of Auschwitz reads 5 E. Roditi, "The Criminal as Public Servant," Commentary, y November 1959, pp. 431 ff. By contrast is the following glimpse of Hoess

from

his

28,

autobiography

Kommandant in Auschwitz, Deutsche Verlagsanstalt Stuttgart, 1958, p. 71, my translation) when he was only part way toward dehumamzation and still displaying some human compassion. "One case touched me particularly deeply. An SS sergeant with whom I had a lot (R. Hoess,

of dealings, since

he frequently accompanied important prisoners and important secret reports, was suddenly brought to me one night to be executed immediately. Just the day before we had been sitting together in our mess hall and had also discussed the recent executions. And now it was his own turn, and I had to obey orders. This was too much even for my Commanding Officer. After the execution we took a long, silent walk to get hold of ourselves. From the officers who had accompanied him, we learned that this SS sergeant had been ordered to arrest a former communist party member and bring brought

From

me

him

supervising

him

into the

camp

[in civilian life]

he had gotten to know well the person now to be imprisoned. He had always behaved well, obeying all rules and regulations. So, out of kindness, he permitted him to stop at his home to change, and say goodbye to his wife. While the sergeant and another police officer talked with the man's wife in the living room the person to be imprisoned escaped through another room. When the SS sergeant reported the escape, he was immediately imprisoned and within an hour a court martial had sentenced him to death. The policeman who had accompanied him (but who had not been in charge of the arrest) was sentenced to many years in prison. ... The executed [SS] man had been a fine citizen, in his middle thirties, married and had three childrenhe had always been extremely conscientious and loyal in his service, and now he had to pay with his life for his kindness and trust. He went composed and quietly to his execution." The moral of this story is clear enough. So if the case touched Hoess particularly deeply it was probably because of its renewed warning that allowing oneself any human emotion was a fatal error,

certain destruction.

leading 8 to

(

The Informed Heart

248

)

following excerpt

any other factory, as in the between Auschwitz and the I. G. from a correspondence Farben chemical trust: c ™„r ;fi r with a new soporific 8 "In contemplation of experiments procuring for us a number we would appreciate your

like that o£

drug, of

women."

"We

8

'

'

r 9nr consider the price of 200 received your answer but .

v

propose to pay not more than marks a woman excessive. We possession of agreeable, we will take 170 marks a head. If approximately 150. the women. We need Prepare for us 150 8 "We acknowledge your accord. conditions and as soon as women in the best possible health them will take charge of us you are ready, we advise you Y their emaci-

women. Despite "Received the order of 150 keep found satisfactory We shaU ate] condition, they were 8

you posted on tact

*«^ ~££££3Z»

were made. JAll suDjects aieu. 6 a new load." you shortly on the subject of

§

"The

tests

Behavior in extermination camps camps,

the extermination analysis of behavior inside since of psychological interest, while more horrid, offers less much no time or occasion to change

The

prisoners there had

psychologically. The only psychological

•

that seems pertiknew they the fact that t.iese prisoners almost no effort to revolt

phenomenon

nent in this report is made were destined to die and still m.lhons I a handful among than less The few exceptions, be-

the since they represent ignore for the moment, havior of such a tiny minority. German guards would be On occasions, only one or two toward the exterfour hundred prisoners

shall

escorting e

Time,

up

to

L. 21,

November

24, 1947, p. 33.

The Fluctuating Price

of Life

/

249

)

mination camps over lonesome roads. There was every chance that the four hundred could have overpowered their armed guards. 7 Even if some prisoners had been killed in the process, the majority would have been free to join partisan groups. At the very least they could have enjoyed a temporary revenge without loss to themselves, since they were slated for death anyway.

A

nonpsychological analysis of the behavior of these prisoners does not seem adequate for explaining such docil-

In order to understand the phenomenon of men not fighting back, although certain death awaited them, 8 it must be realized that the most active individuals had long ago made their efforts to fight National Socialism and were now either dead or exhausted. The Polish and Jewish prisoners ity.

who formed

a majority in the extermination

mostly persons

who

for

some reason had

camps were

failed to escape

and were not fighting back. Their feeling of defeat does not imply they felt no strong hostility toward their oppressors. Weakness and submission are often charged with greater hostility than open counteraggression. In counter aggression, as for instance in the partisan or resistance movements, the opponents of German fascism found outlets for some of their hostilities through offensive action. But within the

not

resist lay

accumulating

oppressed person who did he was unable to dis-

hostilities

charge in action. Not even the mild relief of verbal aggression was open to him, because even that, he was afraid, would bring destruction by the SS.

The more

hostility

prisoner became that

accumulated, the more terrified the

might break through in an explosive spell ing destruction for him. To prevent this, he felt he

act 7

Even Hoess,

revolt, since they

it

in his memoirs,

wondered why the prisoners did not

could often have done

it with ease, given their vast numbers. » This knowledge of certain death made their case different from those other prisoners who could still hope for eventual liberation.

(

250

)

The Informed Heart

more murderous. to be seen as even all hostility The twin process of repressing

had

almost the SS devoured the terrible image of

nergv S

tiona

If

anything was

left,

it

and .nflatmg all his

emo

was soon used up by

Ration

degression due to loss of status dxsease, due to malnutrxtton and from family, exhaustion of the situation. and the absolute hopelessness be dis camps some hostthty could In the concentration the While among prisoner factions. chareed in the fight

he

fight ag

aLt

taX lasted the hope

Tdn im

still

lived that

one.ownpt^

aho camps the prisoners were the extermination

£

;

prisoners who walked explain the docility of graves and then or who dug their own to theg a chamber's they would fab that, shot down, Uned up before them so these prisu may be assumed that most ot , , h ; ^ves

Ml

Trs

may

wefe by the r

ratting suicide in

a

chamber none of die

gas

£

Walking to the way that asUed

suicida..

The Fluctuating Price

of Life

f

251 )

extermination camps committed suicide by submitting to death without resistance. If this

speculation

the extermination

is

correct, then

camps the goals

ultimate realization.

Through

one may

of the SS

say that in

found

their

the use of terror the SS suc-

ceeded in forcing

its opponents to do, out of their own will, wished them to do. Millions of people submitted to extermination because SS methods had forced them to see it not as a way out, but as the only way to put an end to

what

it

conditions in which they could no longer live as

human

beings.

Since these remarks may seem farfetched, it should be added that the process just described is similar to what can be observed in some psychotic patients. The assumption that these prisoners developed states of mind similar to those observed in psychotic persons seems borne out by the behavior of former prisoners of extermination camps after

Their symptoms depended, of course, on and what the individual experienced after liberation. In some persons the symptoms appeared more severe, in others less so; some showed that their symptoms were reversible, others not. Immediately after liberation nearly all prisoners engaged their liberation.

initial personality assets

in asocial

behavior that could only be explained by far reaching disintegration of their former personality structures.

A

few former inmates of extermination camps have been Their grip on reality was extremely tenuous. Some were still suffering from delusions of persecution, others studied.

from delusions of grandeur. The latter were the counterpart of guilt feelings for having been spared while parents or siblings had all perished. They were trying to suffered

justify

and explain

their

ing their importance.

own

It also

survival

extreme damage done experience they had undergone.

for the

by delusionally

inflat-

enabled them to compensate to their narcissism

by the

252

(

The Informed Heart

)

Business as usual world's A few words about the terrors tratfon canTps: the

^

threat

Ib.cb

"

Three

.11

called

WUtae.

reaction to the concen-

committed in them were exper,

different psychological

report,

on

«~r m

mecbani.ms could bo

mechanisms were

««£^

»«

">,k

ate

too camps. »

ta .

libera-

«™ ol

of A »r»l ate lh« "discoeer," nadons. I. «»s soon MAllied lx«m calge swept .he maybe .be discover,, ft

do.

,

Wed

of b, a general repression

Llbb'reaedon

..

J**** P»bllc -a, doe .o -ne.bm

for changing personal!.,.

by

action, or

The

To

ha.e

»

^

by repress.cn

utary universal success ot tne

u,

*•

°™ >

Franfe

P

The Fluctuating Price gests

how much

her story

itself

of Life

(

the tendency to deny

253 )

with

us, while such denial can hasten our an onerous task to take apart such a

demonstrates

is still

how

own destruction. It is humane and moving story, arousing so much compassion for gentle Anne Frank. But I believe that its world-wide acclaim cannot be explained unless we recognize our wish chambers and

to forget the gas

to glorify attitudes of

privatization, of continuing to hold

on

extreme

to attitudes as usual

even in a holocaust. Exactly because their going on with life as usual brought destruction did it have to be

private

glorified; in that

how

way we could overlook the

essential fact of

can be under extreme social circumstances. While the Franks were making their preparations for going passively into hiding, thousands of other Jews in destructive

it

Holland and elsewhere in Europe were trying

to escape to the free world, the better to survive or to be able to fight their executioners. Others who could not do so went under-

ground-not simply

to hide from the SS, waiting passively, without preparation for fight, for the day when they would be caught-but to fight the Germans, and with it for humanity. All the Franks wanted was to go on with life as nearly as possible in the usual fashion.

Little Anne, too, wanted only to go on with life as usual, and nobody can blame her. But hers was certainly not a

necessary fate, much less a heroic one; it was a senseless fate. The Franks could have faced the facts and survived, as did many Jews living in Holland. Anne could have had a good chance to survive, as did many Jewish children in Holland.

But for that she would have had to be separated from her parents and gone to live with a Dutch family as their own child.

Everybody who recognized the obvious knew that the way to go underground was to do it as a family; that to hide as a family made detection by the SS most likely.

hardest

^ (

254

)

The Informed Heart

The

connections among gentile Franks with their excellent

smgiy,

^«v.

for th is, the

unue

as

-m Pr-P^

much

as

po^bl

£^ tVn=ir

to connlannine § was they rf fa mily life not meant haye

*-> * - ^ r= sjsri^'a? M t. * ^ mans »*—«,» mam ^ *. rrs r«: ss £ s

—

as reality

nhtVliSet^hat

the Franks,

be

who were

able to

green po

one or two o£ the

™ce b» ^ no surplu, »*£ let Ln. There w„ toe Jew arreted would

shot

down

at least

of

no,,

„[ an SS «i.b evee, of Ore uof.ce hindered .ho runc.ioning

an»w„

To"

oxcep.

%«;"? for Anne

fa.her

WtTd^Sd"^-S

'"' Ther.'

r^^on SX-

tide acclaim

»

o It

—

.heir

e

he hlrdf,

-

of his

dear,,

* P la» end.

wi.h

^*££^££J~m

Auschwitz ever existed.

an Auschwitz.

»,

.

/*™\b ^ J

Franls wouldn't u.v« died

,«. The

It all

men

are g

The Fluctuating Price

of Life

/

255

)

High time At various places in this book I have mentioned how submitting to the total state leads to a disintegration of what once seemed a well integrated personality, plus a return to

many

infantile attitudes.

speculation

may be

At

this

point perhaps a theoretical

helpful. Years ago

Freud postulated two opposite tendencies: the life instincts, which he called eros or sex, and the destructive tendencies, which he named the death instinct. The more mature the person becomes, the more he should be able to "fuse" these two opposing tendencies, making the resultant "ego" energy available for the task of meeting

and shaping

The more immature cies are apt to

push the

one direction,

at the

so-called

childlike

reality.

the person, the

more

total personality, at

next

moment

friendliness of

these tenden-

one moment in

in the other.

Thus

the

some primitive people,

followed in

the next moment by extreme "thoughtless" But the disintegration, or perhaps one should better say the "defusion" of ego energy under extreme stress-at one moment into pure destructive tendencies ("Let it be over, no matter how"), at the next moment into irrational

cruelty.

tendencies ("Let's get something to eat now, even if it in short order") 10 -was only one aspect of man's primitivization in the total state. Another was engaging in life

means death

infantile thought processes such as wishful thinking in place

of a

more mature evaluation

of reality,

and an

infantile

disregard for the possibility of death. These led many to think that they of all others would be spared and survive,

and many more to simply disbelieve in the possibility of their ow n death. Not believing in its possibility, they did not 10

For example, those prisoners who ate the whole day's ration the they got it had nothing left for their faltering energies toward the end of the working day. Those who divided the little food

moment

they had and saved some for the moment when exhaustion threatened them most fared much better in the long run.

The Informed Heart no preparation for howtodefead prepare for it, including Defending death became inescapable. their lives even when dead. *eir hastened time might have heir lives before such the that the punches point, this "rolling with So no to a

llZ pom

oT

s

that

life. But beyond out was protective of and that of of both one's own life it was destructive more certain too if one whose survival might be

dealt"

one The trouble is that the longer sked one's own life. that more likely it becomes with the punches, the death to resist when no longer have the strength one enemy to if this yielding becomes imminent, particularly of *e per strengthening not by an inner is accompanied but an inner (which it would require)

r

"XwM

£

sonality

n

inte

Sl:

who

dead, did not deny validity to

who

neither

no childpossibility, who embraced denied nor repressed its who prepared indestructibility, were those belief in their one s life possibility. It meant riskmg or it in time as a real s own one saving and in doing so, or a elf chosen purpose Germany were both. When Jews in Hfe orlhat of others'or inertia to

£

those who did not allow ted to their homes, as a^warmng of such restrictions ke over used the imposing join the resistance to go underground, that it was high time papers, etc., if

Sri

with forged

movement, provide themselves Most of them survived Tey had nofdone so long ago. some distant relatives of An example out of the lives of man Early in the war, a young mine may further illustrate. a with together banded small Hungarian town

Hvut

in a

tor

and they prepared themselves Nazi Germans invaded. As soon as the to do when the Budapes his group left for Po^d curfews on the Jews, escapmg for better the chances smce the bigger the city, the

number

of other jews

Tt

living conditio demoralizing impact o£ their desire to resist the

The Fluctuating Price

of Life

/

257

)

There, similar groups from other towns converged and joined those of Budapest. From among them they selected typically "Aryan" looking men who, equipped with false papers, immediately joined the Hungarian SS so as to be able to warn of impending actions, to report in advance detection.

when

a particular district

would be searched, etc. This worked so well that most of the groups survived intact. But they had also equipped themselves with small arms, so that

when

detected they could put

up enough

of a

fight for the majority to escape

while a few would die fighting to gain time for the escape. 12 A few of the Jews who had joined the SS were discovered and immediately shot, probably a death preferable to one in the gas chambers. But even among their special group the majority survived,

hiding within the SS up to the

My

young

last

moment.

was unable to convince some members go with him when he left. Three times, at to himself he returned, pointing out first

relative

of his family to

tremendous risk the growing persecution of the Jews, later the fact that their transport to the gas chambers had already begun. He could not convince them to move out of their homes, to leave their

On each visit he pleaded more desperately, on he found them less willing or able to listen to him,

possessions.

each

visit

much

less

more on

able to take action. their

way

It

was

as

to the crematoria

if

each time they were

where they

all in fact

died.

On each visit his family clung more desperately to the old livin g arrangements, the possessions they had accumu12

Compare

this to the Franks' selection of a hiding place that was without an outlet, and that in all their months there no emergency escape route was constructed through which some of their group could at least have tried to escape while one or two of the men blocked and defended one of the small entrances with a homemade barricade Compare also, Mr. Frank's teaching typically academic high

basically a trap

school subjects to the youngsters, rather than how to make a getaway a token of the same inability to face the possibility of death.

(

The Informed Heart in like a parallel process

£

was lated over a lifetime. It drained life energies were

258

)

which

away while then possesses

real pseudosecunty to replace the seemed to give them a rves. then planning for that no longer came from

assurance

Zn Hke

to to cling desperately children, they preferred had invested all the meaning fome (Sects in which they withdrew their live, As they conld no longer find in reside more their lives began to from the fight for survival, died and the persons in them Ind more in these dead objects little object. by piece, little object by piece P hundreds of German Jewish in Buchenwald, I talked to I asked there in the fall of 1938. prisoners who were brought utterly the Germany because of them why they had not left answer were subjected to. Their deg" ding conditions they giving up It would have meant was- How could we leave? possessions Their earth y homes, our places of business. they could not move, that possession of them

Ty

I

had

so taken

by them

were run instead of using them, they with ones life energy possessions How the investing of also evident in the course made people die piece by piece is fir jews. At the time of the of the Nazi attitude toward Nazis the whole external goal of boycott of Jewish stores the They even let Jews take some was the possessions of the Jews. go, leaving the if they would just of them out of the country For a long time the intenbulk of their possessions behind. laws, was their first discriminatory tion of the Nazis, and of into emiminorities, including Jews, to force undesirable externunathe did not work was gration. Only when this the inner it also followed uon policy Instituted, though if the ideology. But one wonders locic of the Nazi racial foreign nations (and later no°tion that millions of Jews

would submit

-^Ti7e first

poned

result from extermination did not also -shed into hiding be^sc they

P^^^^l^

Franks, too. postponed going

to transfer it

to

more

so long that

called to the SS.

of their it

was nearly too

late for

Annes

Sister,

The Fluctuating Price

of Life

/

2;9

how much degradation they would accept without The persecution of the Jews worsened, slow by slow step, when no violent resistance occurred. It

seeing

fighting back. step

)

may have been Jewish

acceptance, without fight, of ever harsher discrimination and degradation that first gave the SS the idea that they could be gotten to the point where they would walk to the gas chambers on their own.

Most Jews

Poland who did not believe in business as World War. As the Germans approached, they left everything behind and fled to Russia in

usual survived the second

much

as

many

of

them

distrusted the Soviet system.

But

there, while at least

perhaps citizens of a second order, they were accepted as human beings. Those who stayed

on

to

contmue business as usual moved toward their own destruction and perished. Thus in the deepest sense the walk to the gas chamber was only the last consequence of a philosophy

of business as usual; a last step in

no longer defying the

death instinct, which might also be called the principle of inertia. Because the first step was taken long before one entered the death camp.

True, the same suicidal behavior has another meaning means that man can be pushed so far and no further; that beyond a certain point he chooses death to an inhuman existence. But the initial step toward this terrible It

choice was

inertia.

Those

who give in to it, who have withdrawn all vital energy from the world, can no longer act with initiative, and are threatened by it in others. They can no longer accept reality for what it is; having grown infantile, they see it only , n the infantile perspective

of a wishful denial of what too unpleasant, of a wishful belief in their personal immortality. All this is dramatically illustrated in an experience of Lengyel's." She reports that although she and her is

Davimflpp^-sf

CkimneyS ThC St0Ty 0i AUSChwitZ Chi ^o: ' '

Ziff

(

The Informed Heart




contribution to the better rearing of

iers will

be quick to see

ns that arise in

its

home and

all

application in a

school."

—NATIONAL PARENT-TEACHER 'This book will be

y

of child therapy/;' lor

t

sed as a reference

many

and

by workers

text

in the field

years to come."

—Dr. Therese Benedek, marriage and family living

TRUANT Distu;

/

LIFE:

The Rehabilitation of Emotionally

By Bruno Bettelheim

"A /

FROM

rbe d Children

J J

,$

...

The

applications to normal children of the lessons learned from

these histories are quite obvious, and, if they are learned by all those concerned with better child care, all children will benefit from them." —BULLETIN, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS ".

.

.

who

The is

story of

how

this

ful to all of us, especially to

".

.

.

any serious reader The insights they afford can be help—new vork times parents."

was achu ved should

interested in children.

The

.

.

thrill

.

most stimulating and rewarding reading on the problems of

delinquency

is

available in Bettelheim's book.

fascinating in detail

and development,

this

.

.

.

Clear in style and

book truly reads

as fluently

—THE NATION

as a nOVel."

COMPLETE CATALOG ON REQUEST

The Free

Press of Glencoe, Illinois