Analyse & Kritik

Journal of Philosophy and Social Theory

Suchergebnisse

"Allan Fenigstein"

Titel: Were Obedience Pressures A Factor in the Holocaust?
Autor: Allan Fenigstein
Seite: 54-73

Abstract: A number of scholars have suggested that Milgram's laboratory studies of obedience offer an incisive analysis of the behavior of the Holocaust perpetrators. The present paper rejects that position. The contrasts between the two events, at every level of analysis, are striking: In Milgram's research, innocent peers were harmed in the context of science; in the Holocaust, rabidly hated, subhuman enemies were murdered in the context of 'war'. With regard to underlying psychological mechanisms, the evidence questioning the relevance of Milgram's research is equally compelling: obedience pressures had little role in the Holocaust. Most of the Nazi perpetrators showed no remorse or moral distress over the murders and perhaps most critically, virtually all of the killers knew that they could choose not to participate in the killings.

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Milgram und die Täter des Holocaust
1998 (20) Heft 1

Editorial
Stanley Milgrams Entdeckung, in welch erstaunlichem Ausmaß durchschnittliche amerikanische Bürger bereit waren, unbekannten Mitmenschen auf Anordnung einer wissenschaftlichen Autorität schwere Elektroschocks zu verabreichen, hat in den 60er und 70er Jahren über die Sozialwissenschaften hinaus für Aufsehen gesorgt. Heute sind Milgrams Experimente in jeder Standardeinführung in die Sozialpsychologie nachzulesen. Milgram war für diese Experimente auch durch den Holocaust motiviert worden. Oh...

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