Discipline and Punish: "Like Sheep to the Slaughter"

--part1_c.37bc1d6.2b1c1a85_boundary
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

I have suggested that the violence of the Nazis may be understood by
focusing on the psychic stance of SUBMISSION. Yet as Matthew Bradley notes,
studies of the Nazi era often characterize JEWS as submissive. Specifically,
it is suggested that by not sufficiently resisting the actions that led to
the Holocaust, Jews went "like sheep to the slaughter."

Omer Bartov has compared the Holocaust to World War I, the latter being
an earlier case of "industrial killing" sponsored by the nation-state.
Indeed, the First World War was an equally bizarre and destructive event that
led to the deaths of millions of human beings.

The expression "like sheep to the slaughter" may be applied to each of
these events. In each case, participants were unaware of their ultimate fate.
The death of young men in the First World War--like the deaths of Holocaust
victims--may be characterized as the SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENTS.

Peter Whalen writes about the youthful, idealistic German soldiers and
the image of a locomotive rushing across Germany, headed toward the Front.
Aboard the train, hundred of young men in new field-gray uniforms were gaily
singing patriotic songs. These young men, like soldiers from every nation in
the First World War, barely knew where they were going or what they were
getting into.

The mass-slaughter of soldiers began in 1914 and continued until 1918.
Two million German soldiers were killed and millions more wounded. Here is a
description of a "battle" at the Somme on August 18, 1916, when German troops
counter-attacked from their positions in Leuze Wood. The war correspondent
Philip Gibbs saw them advance towards the British trenches, 'shoulder to
shoulder, like a solid bar'. It was 'sheer suicide', he wrote:

I saw our men get their machine-guns into action, and the right side of the
living bar frittered away, and then the whole line fell into the scorched
grass. Another line followed. They were tall men, and did not falter as they
came forward, but it seemed to me they walked like men conscious of going to
death. They died. The simile is outworn, but it is exactly as though some
invisible scythe had mown them down.

German soldiers died LIKE SHEEP GOING TO THE SLAUGHTER.

Hitler fought in World War I and witnessed the endless slaughter of his
own comrades. He was a fierce nationalist and refused to protest against what
occurred. In MEIN KAMPF he said, "When in the long war years Death snatched
so many a dear comrade and friend from our ranks, it would have seemed to me
almost a sin to complain-after all, were they not dying for Germany?"

>From the perspective of Hitler and others who embrace the ideology of
nationalism, the term "submission" as a description of the soldier's posture
would be considered offensive. We do not characterize willingness to die for
one's country as submission to the state. Rather, since it is for the sacred
ideal that one is willing to die, we this psychic stance to be noble and
beautiful.

What was the Holocaust? The Holocaust was depiction or enactment of
SUBMISSION TO THE NATION-STATE IN ITS MOST EXTREME OR ABSOLUTE FORM.

In his study of the First World War, Denis Winter notes the resemblance
between soldiers sent to die in the First World War and Jews sent to die in
the Holocaust. He writes about the experience of German soldiers as they were
transported to battle in cattle cars:

After the stint at base, the railway took the men toward the front line. To a
generation with visual memories of the railway lines running into Hitler's
death camps, tense faces peering from cattle trucks, there is something
disconcerting about the imagery of this journey from base camp. The soldiers
went in wagons of the same type, forty of them in each wagon, kit hanging
from hoods in the roof. Death was a high probability for both generations of
travelers in these cattle trucks.

Hitler understood warfare an opportunity to SACRIFICE ONE'S LIFE FOR
ONE'S NATION. He noted that in World War I "the most precious blood
sacrificed itself joyfully." He observed that military service represented
the duty to "sacrifice the life of the individual, always and forever, at all
times and places." He observed that more than once, "thousands and thousands
of young Germans have stepped forward with resolve to sacrifice their young
lives freely and joyfully on the altar of the beloved father land."

Hitler knew that he was permitted as "leader of his nation" to send
millions of German soldiers to their deaths in battle (just as the leaders of
Germany and other nation-states had been allowed send millions of soldiers to
die in the First World War). Indeed, felt that if he succeeded in his
military efforts, he would go down in history as a great warrior or
conqueror, notwithstanding the millions who might die.

As the Einsatzgruppen murdered millions of Jews in late 1941 and early
1942 east of the Soviet border, Hitler professed to be undisturbed by the
extermination of men, women and children: "IF I DON'T MIND SENDING THE PICK
OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE INTO THE HELL OF WAR WITHOUT REGRET FOR THE SHEDDING OF
VALUABLE GERMANY BLOOD, THEN I HAVE NATURALLY THE RIGHT TO DESTROY MILLIONS
OF MEN OF INFERIOR RACES WHO INCREASE LIKE VERMIN."

This thought reveals the meaning of the Holocaust. The Final Solution
was undertaken by Hitler based on the logic of warfare. In this bizarre
enactment, Hitler was posed the following question: IF I HAVE THE RIGHT AS
NATIONAL LEADER TO SEND GERMAN SOLDIERS (the best human beings) TO THEIR
DEATHS IN WARFARE, DO I NOT ALSO HAVE THE RIGHT TO SEND JEWS (the worst human
beings) TO THEIR DEATHS?

The Holocaust depicted the nature of warfare and experience of the
soldier that we deny, namely SUFFERING AND DEATH AS SUBMISSION TO THE
NATION-STATE, now however stripped of words such as glory, heroism, and
honor.

With regards,

Richard Koenigsberg

Richard Koenigsberg, Ph. D.
Director, Library of Social Science

--part1_c.37bc1d6.2b1c1a85_boundary
Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

<HTML>      I have suggested that the violence of the Nazis may be understood by focusing on the psychic stance of SUBMISSION. Yet as Matthew Bradley notes, studies of the Nazi era often characterize JEWS as submissive. Specifically, it is suggested that by not sufficiently resisting the actions that led to the Holocaust, Jews went "like sheep to the slaughter." 
 
      Omer Bartov has compared the Holocaust to World War I, the latter being an earlier case of "industrial killing" sponsored by the nation-state. Indeed, the First World War was an equally bizarre and destructive event that led to the deaths of millions of human beings. 
 
      The expression "like sheep to the slaughter" may be applied to each of these events. In each case, participants were unaware of their ultimate fate. The death of young men in the First World War--like the deaths of Holocaust victims--may be characterized as the SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENTS. 
 
      Peter Whalen writes about the youthful, idealistic German soldiers and the image of a locomotive rushing across Germany, headed toward the Front. Aboard the train, hundred of young men in new field-gray uniforms were gaily singing patriotic songs. These young men, like soldiers from every nation in the First World War, barely knew where they were going or what they were getting into. 
 
      The mass-slaughter of soldiers began in 1914 and continued until 1918. Two million German soldiers were killed and millions more wounded. Here is a description of a "battle" at the Somme on August 18, 1916, when German troops counter-attacked from their positions in Leuze Wood. The war correspondent Philip Gibbs saw them advance towards the British trenches, 'shoulder to shoulder, like a solid bar'. It was 'sheer suicide', he wrote: 
 
I saw our men get their machine-guns into action, and the right side of the living bar frittered away, and then the whole line fell into the scorched grass. Another line followed. They were tall men, and did not falter as they came forward, but it seemed to me they walked like men conscious of going to death. They died. The simile is outworn, but it is exactly as though some invisible scythe had mown them down. 
 
German soldiers died LIKE SHEEP GOING TO THE SLAUGHTER. 
 
      Hitler fought in World War I and witnessed the endless slaughter of his own comrades. He was a fierce nationalist and refused to protest against what occurred. In MEIN KAMPF he said, "When in the long war years Death snatched so many a dear comrade and friend from our ranks, it would have seemed to me almost a sin to complain-after all, were they not dying for Germany?" 
 
>From the perspective of Hitler and others who embrace the ideology of nationalism, the term "submission" as a description of the soldier's posture would be considered offensive. We do not characterize willingness to die for one's country as submission to the state. Rather, since it is for the sacred ideal that one is willing to die, we this psychic stance to be noble and beautiful. 
 
What was the Holocaust? The Holocaust was depiction or enactment of SUBMISSION TO THE NATION-STATE IN ITS MOST EXTREME OR ABSOLUTE FORM. 
 
      In his study of the First World War, Denis Winter notes the resemblance between soldiers sent to die in the First World War and Jews sent to die in the Holocaust. He writes about the experience of German soldiers as they were transported to battle in cattle cars: 
 
After the stint at base, the railway took the men toward the front line. To a generation with visual memories of the railway lines running into Hitler's death camps, tense faces peering from cattle trucks, there is something disconcerting about the imagery of this journey from base camp. The soldiers went in wagons of the same type, forty of them in each wagon, kit hanging from hoods in the roof. Death was a high probability for both generations of travelers in these cattle trucks. 
 
      Hitler understood warfare an opportunity to SACRIFICE ONE'S LIFE FOR ONE'S NATION. He noted that in World War I "the most precious blood sacrificed itself joyfully." He observed that military service represented the duty to "sacrifice the life of the individual, always and forever, at all times and places." He observed that more than once, "thousands and thousands of young Germans have stepped forward with resolve to sacrifice their young lives freely and joyfully on the altar of the beloved father land." 
 
      Hitler knew that he was permitted as "leader of his nation" to send millions of German soldiers to their deaths in battle (just as the leaders of Germany and other nation-states had been allowed send millions of soldiers to die in the First World War). Indeed, felt that if he succeeded in his military efforts, he would go down in history as a great warrior or conqueror, notwithstanding the millions who might die. 
 
      As the Einsatzgruppen murdered millions of Jews in late 1941 and early 1942 east of the Soviet border, Hitler professed to be undisturbed by the extermination of men, women and children: "IF I DON'T MIND SENDING THE PICK OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE INTO THE HELL OF WAR WITHOUT REGRET FOR THE SHEDDING OF VALUABLE GERMANY BLOOD, THEN I HAVE NATURALLY THE RIGHT TO DESTROY MILLIONS OF MEN OF INFERIOR RACES WHO INCREASE LIKE VERMIN." 
 
      This thought reveals the meaning of the Holocaust. The Final Solution was undertaken by Hitler based on the logic of warfare. In this bizarre enactment, Hitler was posed the following question: IF I HAVE THE RIGHT AS NATIONAL LEADER TO SEND GERMAN SOLDIERS (the best human beings) TO THEIR DEATHS IN WARFARE, DO I NOT ALSO HAVE THE RIGHT TO SEND JEWS (the worst human beings) TO THEIR DEATHS? 
 
      The Holocaust depicted the nature of warfare and experience of the soldier that we deny, namely SUFFERING AND DEATH AS SUBMISSION TO THE NATION-STATE, now however stripped of words such as glory, heroism, and honor. 
 
With regards, 
 
Richard Koenigsberg 
 
Richard Koenigsberg, Ph. D. 
Director, Library of Social Science</HTML>

--part1_c.37bc1d6.2b1c1a85_boundary--