ESSAY 1.B

[Justin A.]

In Jonah Goldhagen’s book, Worse than War, he describes the various
reasons people who commit genocides act the way they do. Most people
believe in the goodness of human beings and that most of the people
who perpetrated genocide did so under duress or were coerced by their
leaders. It is a sad and sobering truth that most of these genocides
had many very willing participants and that they did so
enthusiastically. Goldhagen even stated in his book that “when select
individuals have not wanted to kill, the regime did not make them.”
The people who killed reluctantly did not disprove of the killings. It
is usually political suicide to try to convince people to commit such
heinous crimes. The said politician would lose the support he needs to
stay in position. People have to be already willing to go through with
the slaughter before it begins. Goldhagen also shot down the idea that
people follow through with genocide because of the law or their
government. Goldhagen said that “people disobey, evade, and ignore
state and governmental orders, laws, and regulations all the time.”
Ultimately people would not commit genocide if they truly thought it
to be wrong. Even those who reluctantly do it still somewhat agree to
the act of genocide. The people who are put on trial for war crimes
and crimes against humanity are sometimes pardoned because they are
ordered to do it or were threatened to do it. The author states that
he is conflicted with the way psychology plays into the actions of the
people who commit genocide. It is hard to see if people are actually
doing it because of their agreement with the killing. How can the
perpetrators of such crimes say they were forced to do such evil
things when they were able to do a face to face personal killing.
Most of these genocides were committed in a face to face personal
fashion where the killer could look at his victim’s eyes and to some
even admire their handiwork. Another idea that Goldhagen presented was
that the perpetrators of genocide sought out riches and material
possessions that the people they eliminated had. A thought however
comes to mind when you consider that there are people willing to kill
an enormous amount of people including women and children just to earn
a few dollars. Goldhagen disagrees with this postulate because he
knows that it is not a logical enough reason for people to do these
kinds of things.
I believe that Goldhagen makes a really good point in the fact
that people sometimes do not need a reason to commit genocide other
than that their leaders let them. Human beings as a whole are a very
violent species. We are one the only species that kill each other to
such an extent as eliminating whole communities and races. It is part
of our human nature to lust for violence and some of us can suppress
that part of our nature enough to live day to day without even
thinking of hurting somebody. I disagree with Goldhagen on the fact
that law and the government do not play an important role when it
comes to people committing genocide. A leader can whip up people into
frenzy with his or her charisma and that alone is enough to make
people do what you want. We also need to consider the role religion
plays in all this. Some of the genocides throughout history have been
condoned and even supported by zealous religious factions. Authority
can play a very pivotal part in our decision making. Although
Goldhagen points out that people do ignore and break the law you must
also consider the ramifications of what will happen should they break
that law. When you threaten someone’s livelihood, belief, and their
life, they either rebel or do anything you want them to do. I agree
with Goldhagen on the point that people who reason that they were
forced to do something should not be punished because even if they
were forced to do so it was still their decision. You cannot argue
semantics in a court of morality. I think that people who willingly
commit such acts of genocide do so because they fully believe and
support what they are doing and that they see nothing wrong in the
slaughter of so many people. The leader of the perpetrators often
play upon long established prejudices between ethnicities or groups as
a way to rationalize the elimination of the other group. Furthermore
you cannot justify the killing of so many people indiscriminately. You
cannot argue why their killing is justified and they should be
punished for the things they have done.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Altman, L. J. (2009) . Genocide: The systematic killing of a
people. New Jersey: Enslow.
2. Baum, S. K. (2008) . The psychology of genocide: Perpetrators,
bystanders, and rescuers. New York: Cambridge.
3. Goldhagen, D. J. (2009) . Worse than war: Genocide, eliminationism,
and the ongoing assault on humanity. New York: Public Affairs.

Part 2
It was a very cold night deep in the hills of Poland. My name is
Oberleutnant Albrecht Emmerich. I have been stationed here for the
past two years to guard over these prisoners. For two years I have
seen people come into the camp with no knowledge of what horror and
suffering awaits them. I do not particularly have an issue with the
Jews and the Poles that come into this camp daily. I fail to see how a
group of such weak willed people could prove as a threat to the
Fuhrer. He blames them for the stagnation of our country and those
them inferior to us. As I walk and enjoy my cigarette break I see one
of my soldiers running towards me. It was Franz Heilbronner, he was a
Schutze in the army and had yet to see combat. He reports to me that
the Soviet Army is closing in on the camp and that we have direct
orders from Reichsfuhrer Himmel that we were to erase any evidence of
the camp including its occupants. I tossed my cigarette in the snow
and calmly asked him how much munitions we had left and he told me
that since the Soviets had thrown our supply lines into disarray that
we had little left. I proceeded to inquire about our food supply and
he told me that we had an excess left over from the last shipment. I
looked at the camp and at the thousands of people who were inside and
I thought to myself better us than them. I never felt any sort of
animosity towards these people and that my actions were justified by
the will of my country and that I was doing them a service by
eliminating these sub humans. I looked back at Franz and told him to
set fire to the gas chambers and the crematoriums. When he asked me
what to do with the prisoners I told him that we were to arm the men
and we were going to shoot as many of the prisoners as possible. He
looked at me with a sick expression on his face and I sternly told him
that orders were orders and that we had no choice but to follow them.
So we carried as much food and medical supplies we could carry and
then set the supply building on fire. We soon went to the camp and the
blood bath began. There were six hundred of us guarding the camp and
each person was equipped with about eighty bullets and we spent them
all on the prisoners. We soon ran out and had to use our bayonets and
proceeded to slaughter the prisoners. We soon heard artillery fire
coming in from the east and we ceased our massacre and left the camp
but we locked the gate to make sure that nobody would be able to
leave. It was too late for us to set fire to the rest of the compound
and we left the prisoners to their fate. It would be ten years later
after the war that I would come to regret my decision. I was living in
a small farm that my family owned outside of Berlin when I was
arrested and brought to court by Israeli Mossad operatives. Apparently
one of the survivors remembered my name and face and was able to relay
to them that I was the one who organized the massacre of the camp.
They even had Franz there who testified that he did what he did
because I forced him to obey my orders along with various members of
my unit. I already knew that there was no escaping my fate and that I
was destined to die at the hands of the people that I have imprisoned
and killed during the war. I looked the judge straight in the face and
told him that all their accusations were correct and that I did what I
did because I agreed with the Fuhrer and that their people should not
be allowed to live. I locked eyes with each man in my unit and they
knew the message I was sending them. They too were responsible for
what happened that night. They knew deep down that even without orders
they would have relished the actions they took that night. I walked
slowly to my execution. I saw the noose that was tied and I knew then
and there that I was going to die and I remembered my life and I
regret that all people would know me for would be the slaughter of
thousands of Jews under my orders.


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