How people were manipulated in German concentration camps, and why this strategy still works today

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The destruction of not a person, but an individual - this was the main goal of the concentration camps, breaking the will, the desire for freedom and the struggle for it, but leaving physical opportunities for work. The ideal slave does not speak, has no opinion, does not mind and is ready to fulfill. But how to make an adult personality out of an adult, having lowered his consciousness to that of a child, to turn it into a biomass, which is easy to manage? Psychotherapist Bruno Bettelheim, himself a hostage of Buchenwald, identified the main theses used for these purposes.

For the concentration camp guards, despite the fact that their actions are an unconditional crime against humanity as a whole, there were no people in the institutions in which they worked, there was a biomass that had no rights and desires. Otherwise, the psyche of a healthy person would simply not have withstood its own cruelty. It’s not a pity to use biomass, it has no feelings, will, desires, it must not be painful at all. She does not wake up sympathy, she is disgustingly obedient and ready to lick the boot that kicks her.

The psychotherapist who survived the concentration camp

Bruno Bettelheim was born at the beginning of the 20th century in Vienna and already had a doctorate in psychiatry when World War II broke out. After Austria was captured, the doctor was arrested, first he served time in Dachau, and then in the famous Buchenwald. Undoubtedly, this fact of his biography became a turning point, but his profession helped him not only to survive and preserve his personality, but also determined his professional orientation in his future work.

His book "The Enlightened Heart" is devoted to life in a concentration camp, but it is not autobiographical - dozens of such books have been written. It contains other, more valuable information that makes psychologists still refer to it as a consulting one.

So, after three months in a concentration camp, Bruno, as an experienced psychiatrist, begins to notice changes in his mind and rightly believes that he is going crazy. However, being in inhuman conditions, he will still be able to remain human and his profession will help him in this. He decides to start analyzing the degree of personal destruction in concentration camps, especially since his colleagues did not have such a unique chance, because he was completely immersed in the situation and was himself a participant in those terrible events.

But his work also had certain nuances, of course, there could be no question of any scientific forms. He was not allowed to watch other prisoners. Ask them questions and even write down their small observations when they still managed to do it. Pencil and paper were banned in concentration camps, because biomass should not be engaged in scientific research. The psychiatrist began to memorize, even memorize, what he managed to work out. Was he taking risks? Of course, because if he had not survived, then all his works, preserved only in his thoughts, would have collapsed, but on the other hand, this is what allowed him not to go crazy.

Soon he was released from the camp and went to America, there, in the midst of the war, his first work on the work of Hitler's concentration camps came out, so the main theme of his work began to be traced - the influence of the environment on human behavior. He organized a school for children with psychological trauma and disorders, and helped many of them return to normal life. He is the author of many scientific books and articles.

The doctor took an interest in studying concentration camps as soon as they appeared. After he visited them himself, his professional interest resulted in psychological work. He wanted to tell the public, which for the most part considered such camps as just pointless torture, about the fatal changes in the personality of the person who was a prisoner. In many ways, Bruno's work explains totalitarianism, tells how to preserve one's own personality in the conditions of authoritarianism.

His book "The Enlightened Heart" is a huge work, but it is possible to single out some theses that he talks about when talking about ways to suppress the will of a person, bringing his weak-willed being without interests and aspirations, which are worth dwelling on in more detail.

Paused Life

The physical existence in the camps was an incredible test for the prisoners. They worked 17 hours a day, in any weather, and the food and recreation conditions were such that they were on the brink of survival. Their life did not belong to them, every minute of their existence was under strict rules and supervision. They did not have the opportunity to retire, talk, share with each other about something.

The prisoners in the camps were used for several purposes at once, and the hard work they did was not at all one of them. After all, there was little sense from half-starved and sick people.

• The main task of the camps was the destruction of the personality, the creation of a biomass, ready for anything and incapable even of group resistance. • Another equally important task is intimidation. Rumors of concentration camps spread throughout the world and did their job, making them fear like plague. • A testing ground for fascists with ambitious goals to create an ideal society that can be easily managed. In the camps, a person's needs for the most elementary benefits - food, rest, hygiene, communication, were successfully fulfilled.

Initiation and trauma

The process of a person's rebirth to another level, in this case a lower one, began even from the moment of transfer to a place of confinement. If the distance was short, then they drove slowly so that the guards could have time to complete a certain ritual. All the way, the prisoners were tortured, and how exactly the warder himself decided, based on his own imagination and desires.

Future prisoners were beaten, kicked in the stomach, in the face, in the groin, this was interspersed with a kneeling position, or any other uncomfortable or humiliating position. Those who tried to resist were shot. However, this was part of the "performance" and those who were shot were shot, even if no one offered resistance. The prisoners were forced to say terrible things, to insult each other, their relatives.

The process lasted, as a rule, at least 12 hours. This period was enough to break down resistance and make a person afraid of physical violence at an animal level. The prisoners began to obey the orders of the warden, no matter what he asked.

The fact that the initiation was part of the plan is also evidenced by the fact that when the prisoners were transported from camp to camp, the guards did not beat them and they just calmly got to their destination.

In addition, Bruno identifies three main directions along which the Nazis moved in order to achieve the above goals.

• Regression of personality and bringing consciousness to the child's. • Deprivation of any individuality - uniform, shaving bald, number instead of name.• Eliminate the possibility of a person to plan and manage his own life. Nobody knew for how long he was locked up in the camp and whether he would be released at all.

In addition to these methods, there were others, more subtle ones, which are used all over the world and now, making a weak-willed creature out of a personality, unable to openly speak about his desires and manifest his own Self.

Pointless work

This technique was a favorite in concentration camps, prisoners dragged stones from one place to another, dug holes, and without tools, and then buried them back. If these actions had logic and a result that any person wants to see as the result of his work, then there would be no psychological trauma. But the result was the same - an exhausted and emaciated prisoner who was doing all day long what was of no use to anyone.

The main argument in favor of such work was "because I said so." This only emphasized the fact that there would be others to think and give instructions here, while the task of the prisoners was silently fulfilled, without asking unnecessary questions.

Such things are still used, for example, in the army (a lawn cut by hand and dozens of stories that anyone who served in the army will remember), in factories ("dig here, while I go and find out where it is necessary") …

Collective responsibility instead of personal

It has long been known that the introduction of collective responsibility destroys personal responsibility as quickly as possible and better. But when it comes to the fact that they are shot for a mistake, everyone turns into overseers for each other. It turns out that in such a situation, the possibility of riots is practically excluded, because the team works in the interests of the fascists, well, or any other organizer who made such conditions.

This is often the case in schools, if you repeat the requirement once, then especially zealous students will subsequently follow the rest so that this rule is fulfilled. Even if the teacher has already forgotten about it and has never repeated this request again, the punishment is not commensurate with the efforts being made.

The principle of group responsibility also applies when an individual is made guilty for what has been done by a group of people to which he is related. An example - to torture a Jew, because representatives of his nationality executed Jesus.

Nothing depends on you

Creation of circumstances in which a person cannot control and plan anything himself. He does not know if he will wake up tomorrow morning, if he can eat and what his working day will be.

Such an experiment was carried out on Czech prisoners, who, in fact, were in even more favorable conditions than the rest. At first they were singled out in a separate group and placed in a more privileged position, they practically did not work, they ate better. Then, without warning, they were thrown to work in a quarry. After some time, they returned it back. And so several times without any consistency, control and logic.

No one survived in this group, the human body is not able to deal with such uncontrolledness and impossibility to predict. Such tactics completely deprive a person of faith in tomorrow and disorganize.

Bruno was convinced that the survival of an individual depends largely on the ability to maintain control over his behavior, over important roles in his life, even if the conditions in which he exists are inhuman. In order for a person to retain the desire to live, he must have at least the semblance of freedom of choice.

This also includes a strict daily routine. The man was constantly driven out: you will not have time to make the bed, you will remain hungry. Haste, fear of punishment were exhausting and did not give them a minute to exhale and put their thoughts in order. In addition, there was no consistency in rewards and punishments. They could just send them to carry stones, or they could reward them with a weekend. Just like that, for no reason.

Such tactics kill initiative and are often used in totalitarian states, whose citizens repeat: “it has always been like this,” “you will not change anything,” “nothing depends on me”.

I see nothing, I hear nothing

This aspect follows from the previous one, the lack of desire to change something, or rather lack of faith in one's own strengths, makes a person not react to stimuli and live according to the principle “I see nothing, I hear nothing”.

In concentration camps, it was customary not to react to the beating of other prisoners, to the cruelty of the guards, the rest turned away, pretending that they were not there, that they did not see what was happening. Complete lack of solidarity and sympathy.

The last line and it's passed

For most of the prisoners, becoming a murderer - considered equal to their torturers, was the most terrible thing. It was this that was often used as the final and most severe punishment. Bettelheim tells about a very revealing story that clearly demonstrates the attitude of people to the very line after which there is no return.

The overseer, seeing that two prisoners were taking time off from work (as far as possible), forced them to lie on the ground, calling the third, ordered him to bury them. He refused, despite the fact that he received punches and death threats. The warden, without hesitation, ordered them to switch places and ordered those two to bury the third. They immediately obeyed. But when only his head remained sticking out of the ground, the fascist canceled his order and ordered to pull it out.

But the torture did not end there, the first two went into the ditch again, the third this time obeyed the order and began to bury them, apparently believing that at the last minute the order would be canceled again. But when it drew to a close, the guard himself stamped the ground over the heads of those buried.

How much human remained in the one who could not move, speak and even think without the permission of someone else? Extinct looks and the absence of any desires are the walking dead, as Bruno describes the former prisoners of the camps.

Judging by the description of the psychotherapist, the transformation of personalities into biomass was akin to the zombie that we know so well, thanks to the image created by the cinema. If the initial changes were little traced externally, and concerned the suppression of the will, the complete lack of desire to move without an order, lack of initiative. Then the subsequent stages of personality deformation were quite obvious to themselves. So, for example, a person began not to walk, but to shuffle his feet, uttering characteristic sounds, to trudge, because there is an order.

The next stage was the aspiration of the gaze only in front of oneself, the horizon closed in the literal sense of the word, the person begins to look only at one point and not see what is happening nearby in the literal sense of the word. The next step was death. Those who survived, according to Bettelheim, had the ability to adapt to circumstances and knew how to choose their attitude to what was happening, setting themselves up in one way or another.

This is just a small fraction of the atrocities that befell those who lived in the same era with the most terrible tyrant and dictator - Adolf Hitler. How respectable Germans raised a real monster and what were their omissions as parents?