The Holocaust resulted in the mass murder of over 6 million Jews as part of Hitler's plan to eradicate minorities in Germany. Jews and other groups were marginalized through many stages, including being sent to concentration camps where they were killed by SS guards over several years during World War 2. People will often pass responsibility for their harmful actions to an authority figure through a process called agentic shift, where they view themselves not as autonomous decision-makers but as carrying out the demands of others.

2. The Holocaust was a part of Adolf Hitler’s Final Solution – to eradicate
the impure races in Germany. The marginalization of minorities,
primarily Jews occurred in many stages. One of these anti-semist
attacks were concentration camps which resulted in the mass murder
of over 6 million Jews. People who were under Hitler’s authority, such
as, the SS guards killed these individuals over a period of years in
WW2.
How could someone kill such innocent
individuals?
CONTEXT

3. WHAT IS AGENTIC SHIFT?
People will pass all responsibility for their actions to the authority figure
when in a situation of obedience. Individuals are initially in an autonomous
state meaning that they make their own decisions. Therefore they take the
‘wrap’ because they performed their actions on their own accord.
However, when they transition to an agentic state they shift the
responsibility to the authority figure because the individual perceives
themselves as ‘carrying out another person’s wishes’.
This transition from an autonomous state to an agentic state is called the
agentic shift.

4. EVIDENCE
When Milgrim’s participants were debriefed after the original electric
shock experiment many reported that they knew it was wrong to
deliver dangerous electric shocks. However, they felt the experimenter
was responsible not them because they initially made the demands or
instructions. They only carried out what they were told to do.

5. EVALUATION
Although, the participants in Milgrim’s study did not go through the
extremity in which the Nazi perpetrators had. Soldiers carried out
killings over months, even years , they only experienced ½ hour.
Participants were told that no harm could come to learner, whereas,
soldiers knew they were killing people.
At the Nuremburg trials, many Nazi soldiers defended their actions by
saying that it was not their fault because they were just following
someone else’s order. They describe themselves as passive beings
because they only carried out demands which were not created by
themselves.
Hence showing the transition from autonomy to agentic shift.