“They are the typical product of the structure of the German Lager: if one offers a position of privilege to a few individuals in a state of slavery, exacting in exchange the betrayal of a natural solidarity with their comrades, there will certainly be someone who will accept. He will be withdrawn from the common law and will become untouchable; the more power that he is given, the more he will be consequently hateful and hated. When he is given the command of a group of unfortunates, with the right of life or death over them, he will be cruel and tyrannical, because he will understand that if he is not sufficiently so, someone else, judged more suitable, will take over his post” (Pg 91)
I had a stereotypical view on the officers of the concentration camp that all of them were are sinful and I could not understand their behaviors to the Jews in the camp. But as I read this passage, I found out that some of them had to be cruel and brutal to the prisoners because or else, they would lose their “special” privilege and become like the every other prisoner in the camp. This also clearly shows the sinful nature of human beings. Wouldn’t we do anything to survive? For instance, the officers in the concentration camp were basically murdering others in order to save their own lives. If anyone offers a prisoner to either die in a crematorium or be the officer of the camp, who wouldn’t choose the role of the officer, who wouldn’t choose to kill the fragile and pathetic looking Jews over the death in the gas chamber?
I had a stereotypical view on the officers of the concentration camp that all of them were are sinful and I could not understand their behaviors to the Jews in the camp. But as I read this passage, I found out that some of them had to be cruel and brutal to the prisoners because or else, they would lose their “special” privilege and become like the every other prisoner in the camp. This also clearly shows the sinful nature of human beings. Wouldn’t we do anything to survive? For instance, the officers in the concentration camp were basically murdering others in order to save their own lives. If anyone offers a prisoner to either die in a crematorium or be the officer of the camp, who wouldn’t choose the role of the officer, who wouldn’t choose to kill the fragile and pathetic looking Jews over the death in the gas chamber?
