Conference "Perpetrator Research in a Global Context", January 27 to 29, 2009 Berlin

On 27-29th January, 2009 an international academic conference entitled "Perpetrator Research in a Global Context" took place in Berlin. The conference was organized by the German Federal Agency for Civic Education in cooperation with the Essen Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and the Royal Holloway University of London.

Aims and Perspectives of the Conference
This conference intended to shed light on the different roles, intentions and motivations of perpetrators during the Holocaust, putting recently won insights not only in comparison to other genocides, but also trying to develop approaches to implement them in today's society in various fields. Throughout the conference manifold ways of the applicability of information gained by academic research to all kinds of fields of potential implementation kept being discussed by well-known experts of their respective areas, thus, ranging from perceptions of historical, educational, social, socio- and even neuro-psychological as well as philosophical point of views. By offering such a quantity of different accesses to this complex topic, the organizers successfully proved the relevance of this rather young field of research as universal.
Specifically regarding the Holocaust, it was emphasized to veer away from the prevailing conventional perception of the different kinds of perpetrators, simply distinguishing on the one hand between the so-called "desk killers", those who were not "physically" involved in the actual act of perpetration, but in the process of which they played a decisive role as of their organizational skills, and the ones who apparently only obeyed orders from above without any further interest, on the other hand. Thanks to the enlightening information provided by the scholars, it became clear that this perception was not applicable any more, given the intermixture of organizational with societal as well as social and ideological aspects which will be described in the passages yet to come. Moreover, after proving the importance of the role of ordinary people, being considered as "normal" before participating in the national-socialist "death machinery", the question of how they could ultimately transform to murderers kept rising up in recent decades, so, it constituted a point of focus as well.
Thus, this black-and-white perception of perpetrators, considered as widely outdated, as well as the question mentioned above had to be disproved and analyzed, respectively, by the lecturers by means of effective arguments - a goal that, as it turned out in the course of the conference, they should definitely achieve.

How could "normal" people turn into murderers?
Regarding the unprecedented way of committing atrocities conducted by the Nazis and, even more important, their helpers one is likely to think about how it could come so far. When we're talking about perpetrators, i.e. peasants, craft workers, officials or simply locals of all kind of social backgrounds, about those who actively or, not less unacceptable, passively took part in these mass killings, are we then talking about human beings? Well, of course, unfortunately! Human beings like you, reading this text, or me, writing it. That is the sad truth! But how could this happen?
Explanations were to be furnished by the lecturers, with the first one being Richard Overy, Professor of History at the University of Exeter. He started off, focusing on socio-historical as well as socio-psychological aspects. Mr. Overy described the need of an individual for inclusion in society and for social belonging as decisive. Like the Soviet Union before (and after) the Second World War, the Nazis as well succeeded in establishing, simply said, "in-" and "out-groups" to which every citizen of the respective population initially had to feel and ultimately felt itself appropriate on the basis of government-set parameters. There was a common thinking of "us" and "them", explaining why most of the perpetrators being interviewed after the war didn't feel any remorse concerning their actions.
One may continue to ask oneself why no one had perceived the signs indicating the Holocaust. Well, Harald Welzer, head of the Center for Interdisciplinary Memory Research in Essen proved that this was hardly possible, if not impossible at all. According to his perception, in those days, as well as today, people were constantly residing in and were being affected by the so-called "frame of reference" (Referenzrahmen). This theory describes the interplay between past, present and even future. This means that people could not conceive it, but arguably influence it by their decisions and actions. Thereby he advises us not to judge people on the basis of our today's knowledge as we forcibly have totally different views of historical circumstances than people living and acting under them. We should rather be aware of the socio-historical context appearing during the interwar-period, enabling us to understand that in those days the failure of control mechanisms, which was sensed as such by the respective populations, made the people susceptible for violence as they couldn't see a way out of their mostly miserable, uncertain conditions.
Taking a look from a rather solely psychological perspective, Mr. Overy heavily rejected the term, as well as its included perception, of the so-called "banality of evil" as distorted, regarding the significance of the establishment of different norms already mentioned above. According to his statements, people could make choices, but as of the absence of a certain restraint to commit atrocities the very took place, eventually. Mr. Welzer, in this case, speaks of a "moral dissonance" (moralische Dissonanz) revealing itself within the perpetrators. It describes the fight of the moral, ethical and in this sense positively human attitudes against those of inferiority initially imposed by the government, but finally anchored in the perpetrators minds. Referring to Sigmund Freud, Mr. Overy argued by questioning the core of a human being, depicted, according to Freud's psychoanalysis, as being driven by primitive, savage impulses continuing in every one of us, just waiting for an opportunity to unfold their cruelty.
Furthermore it has to be said, underlining the research of all of the lecturers proving that there was no simple explanation available, that it was, generally seen, a certain mixture of greed, economic reasons as well as ideology (mostly because of government's imposition) that resulted in this horrible events.
Christian Gudehus from the Center of Interdisciplinary Memory Research in Essen, furthermore, focused in his lecture "Understanding human behaviour - Hints from Sociology and Social Psychology" on how and, more importantly, why violence was transformed into a popular spectacle. To exercise violent sanctions, punishments, humiliation and so on in public was a way to force the bystanders to take position and to either become a helper or an insurgent, which would logically entail punishment of the respective person as well. An interesting, even essential observation was summed up by Mr. Gudehus in the term of "diffusion of responsibility" (Verantwortungsdiffusion). It had been proved that, in view of any kind of counteraction, the possibility for the very to occur would shrink dramatically with a rising number of bystanders, as of the fact that people would adapt their behavior to the one of the other beholders out of fear of making a mistake or attracting attention, in general.
The lecture of Elizabeth Harvey, University of Nottingham, was dedicated to the role of women as perpetrators. Generally speaking, it had been observed that the intentions of women did not remarkably differ from the men's, ranging from ideological over pragmatic to economic reasons. They had in most of the cases been equally affected by the circumstances like their male counterparts, with the exception that, based on their then role in society, concentration camps, for example, offered for them a convenient working place where they could even seize the possibility to be forwarded and, thus, being more privileged in view of their societal status.
To draw a conclusion, it has been proved as essential to shed light on both the individual and the society, as of their dialectic relation to each other. We should be aware of the importance to reconstruct not only this interaction, but the one of victims and perpetrators as well in order to gain new, groundbreaking information needed to finalize patterns on how to prevent such atrocities in the future.

Holocaust and Collaboration - Example Ukraine
It was only in the 1990s, after the fall of the Soviet Union, that, if only privileged ones, international historians were given access to (most of) the archival materials held secret for several decades.
Wendy Lower, a well-known specialist in the field of Holocaust Research in Eastern Europe, presented in her lecture "Holocaust and Collaboration" recently gained, enlightening insights concerning perpetrators in Eastern Europe, especially on the territory of the today's Ukraine. Ms. Lower underlined the horrendous amount of self-mobilization of the local population in committing pogroms even before the Nazis arrived, just after the Red Army had left on its retreat to the Russian SSR, actions clearly depicting the effects of Stalinism as a basis for intercultural and interethnic conflicts throughout all societal classes. Referring to the work of Patrick Desbois, a French priest who managed to confirm the previously explored perception of division of labor under the Nazi-occupation by providing oral testimonies of survivors, Ms. Lower once more stressed the essence of the local population being used for a variety of roles. Mostly the "dirty work", like digging pits, was done by the locals, of course not often voluntarily. Other fields of collaboration or cooperation concerned administrative institutions and especially the auxiliary police, the help of which the Nazis were in great need regarding the knowledge of the territory provided by these locals, being essential for the vast operations of the Wehrmacht.
However, without neglecting the importance to point out the few individuals who fought successfully against the bias of the majority, later on turning into so-called "righteous" people, the historian supported the perception of shifting circumstances as a basis for these atrocities. In the end Ms. Lower emphasized once more that locals from all over Ukraine and all kind of societal classes not only participated in the mass murder of Jews, but in the mass murder of their Jews!

Impacts on and Ways of Implementation in Today's Society
A major interest one could derive from the conference constitutes the interdisciplinarity between historical and social science, as only the combination and correlation of those areas will ultimately lead to a better understanding of the historical context and its effects on the people. Still nowadays a lot of schools deal with the Holocaust in either an inappropriate manner or even not at all, as it is quite comfortable to declare the Holocaust as unexplainable. But this is the false approach! It would mean that these occurrences were unique and, thus, the significance of such patterns to anticipate and prevent in nowadays' society would be neglected. Dealing with the Holocaust, especially on a pedagogical basis, is a very fragile topic. False approaches could reverse the whole aims and create phenomena like the so-called "inherent antisemitism". Another method to avoid, unfortunately often used as of their interactivity, would be the one of role games in which pupils should finally identify themselves with the victims and be aware of how rapidly circumstances can change. Anyway, this approach solely implicates the test persons' self-identifications with the victims, without underlining the humanity of the perpetrators, thus, distancing the pupils of the awareness that they themselves could, under defining circumstances, turn into perpetrators. Instead it was recommended to challenge the pupils' self-perceptions by enabling them to express freely their point of views and discuss them vividly. The teacher should rather act as an advising person, furnishing information and as the case may be lead the pupils on the right way, but avoid any impositions of opinions.
Furthermore, the ever growing importance and influence of the media on our every day life has been addressed. Ways of how to create public awareness through innovative, informative projects had been presented, with one being the documentation "Audioweg Gusen" dealing with the question to which extend locals, living on the territory and even in buildings once pertaining to a concentration camp and its administration should be aware or even commemorate and behave in regard of the historical events of the very locality.
In respectiveness of current attempts of Italy's Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, to create parameters according to which people should be defined as belonging to the inferiorly treated ethnic groups of Roma and Sinti, the conference's participants acknowledged the fact that the necessity to introduce the so-called "Lessons of the Holocaust" into school curriculums as part of civic education was more evident than ever before. They aim to prevent the formation of "in" and "out groups" and the following exclusion and segregation of their members, respectively. It is to be considered as essential for the functioning of a multicultural society to safe heterogeneity on the one hand, but to pay attention not to form parallel, but equal ones interacting and communicating with one another, on the other hand. Focusing on this very topic, the third optional workshop, entitled "Teaching and Learning about Perpetrators in Multi-Ethnic and Migration Societies" provided innovative approaches on how to deal with apparently different historical backgrounds and narratives in a multicultural classroom, example Germany. The audience was offered the idea to correlate and compare the patterns and processes going on during the Holocaust on the one hand and the Armenian Genocide on the other hand, without trivializing either of the events, which is very important. The aim is to create a feeling of common history and historical contexts. It should further create unity and awareness among the pupils, thereby being equipped to anticipate and face challenges that might threaten the equality of peoples and their harmony in living together.

To retrace the enlightening contributions of each of the invitees to the conference, please visit the homepage of the German Federal Agency for Civic Education under the link indicated below!

http://www.bpb.de/veranstaltungen/VRIZRF,0,0,Perpetrator_Research_in_a_Global_Context_T%E4terforschung_im_globalen_Kontext.html

Alexander Kirner (Volunteer - Verein Gedenkdienst)