Kirstie Crumbley
4/15/15
Synthesis Paper 2
Many scholars have studied and questioned the beginnings of the Holocaust. The ideas of how such a massive and violent event could occur in the world’s history have been addressed through many different theories and experiments. Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Nazi Party and was in total control of the annihilation of the Jews. Through Hitler’s charismatic leadership, he was able to gain control and respect of his soldiers which allowed them to overcome confrontational tension and fear, and dehumanize the Jews, which lead to the Holocaust being one of the world’s largest genocides.
In the book “Modernity and the Holocaust” author Zygmunt Bauman explores the ideas and concepts that lead to the success of the Holocaust. One of the main reasons it was possible for the Holocaust to happen was the leader, Adolf Hitler. Hilter lead with his voice, he possessed a voice that was able to gain control of his followers which allowed him to instill in them his main objective. Bauman writes, “According to the functionalists' findings, 'Hitler set the objective of Nazism: "to get rid of the Jews, and above all to make the territory of the Reichjudenfrei, i.e., clear of Jews" - but without specifying how this was to be achieved” (Bauman 1989:16). Once Hilter was able to send out his objective, obedience to authority became the main focus for Hitler’s soldiers.
The desire to obey an authoritative figure even when they are not present is shown through Milgram Obedience Experiment video. Milgram Obedience Experiment concluded that in human nature people do what they are told to do as long as it comes from a higher authority. During this experiment the teachers served as the participants and where assigned to administer shocks to their students whenever the students gave a wrong answer, however they were unaware that the students were in on the experiment. The purpose of the experiment was to see how well the participants...