Holocaust research paper sample

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Collective behavior theories and the holocaust
Holocaust was an unfortunate event which happened in the late 1930s and the early
1940s. It was literally a genocide propagated by the Nazi’s Adolf Hitler, his supporters and
facilitated by the state of Germany. Approximately six million people of Jewish descent were
killed in that horrific event. The driving force behind all this being a mindset that the Germans
were “superior” human beings while the Jews on the other hand “inferior” and a threat to the
Germans’ dominion (Melson, 2).
The Holocaust was an event of collective behavior in that the individuals who
participated in the killings had surrendered their individual thinking capacity and conformed to a
crowd psychology (Newman et.al, 23). The activities of the soldiers in the Holocaust were
therefore guided and dictated directly by the resolutions that they came up with as a group and
not on individual basis. This form of psychological state allowed for no humane reasoning as
people who literally turned into beasts with no feelings and human touch. According to Lebon
Gustane this is referred to as collective unconsciousness (Sherwin et.al, 30).
The collective behavior during Holocaust can also be approached or explained according
to Stanley Milgram’s viewpoint. Milgram’s conducted research in which it clearly demonstrated
the effects of obedience to authority. The person being commanded struggles to fulfill what he

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has been ordered to do by the administration and in spite of the pain the victim of such an action
is feeling, the individual who is under command will proceed with administering the pain or
punishment (Mazian, 40). This is exactly the case which happened with the soldiers who were
commanded by Hitler to administer the punishment and killings. The soldiers were more intent
in following the orders and were not deterred by the pain or the plight of the suffering Jews.
Edward Louis’s findings of the use of propaganda can also help put into perspective the
activities and the role of Hitler in the Holocaust and its effects on collective behavior (Ball, 55).
By planting in the minds of the German soldiers that they were superior and that their main
challengers the Jews were inferior and that they needed to be eliminated, Hitler managed
indirectly to churn the dangerous human libidinal energies which were the driving force behind
the whole process of Holocaust.
The German soldiers, police officers, and the politicians were the main players in the
Holocaust. The politicians, represented by Hitler controlled the entire group of soldiers using a
myriad of psychological tools ranging from propaganda as stated above (Weiner, 85). That is the
purposeful creation of information content in order to influence the activities of the people which
would then prompt them to act in a certain manner as desired by the propagandist but without the
people being aware (Schilling, 100). “Obedience to authority” was also prevalent as the
Germans never questioned the Hitler’s stand, they followed his commands blindly to the
detriment of the Jews and other underprivileged and minority groups (Alexander, 88).
Rationality, in this case, is achieved when Hitler with an intent of creating a political
mileage infuses into the minds of the Germans their superiority aspect and presents the Jews as
their contenders (Berger, 33). The act leads to the elimination of the Jews by the Germans.

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Irrationality on the other part I seen on the part of the Germans who fall prey to the propaganda
propagated by Hitler and in their anger they caused the Holocaust (Chall, 85).

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Works cited
Alexander, Jeffrey C. Trauma: A Social Theory. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2012. Internet resource.
Ball, Karyn. Disciplining the Holocaust. Albany: SUNY Press, 2008. Print.
Berger, Ronald J. The Holocaust, Religion, and the Politics of Collective Memory. New
Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2011. Print.
Chall, Leo P. Sociological Abstracts. San Diego, etc.: Sociological Abstracts, 1953. Print.
Mazian, Florence. Why Genocide?: The Armenian and Jewish Experiences in Perspective.
Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1990. Print.
Melson, Robert. Revolution and Genocide: On the Origins of the Armenian Genocide and the
Holocaust. Chicago [u.a.: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1996. Print.
Newman, Leonard S, and Ralph Erber. Understanding Genocide: The Social Psychology of the
Holocaust. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Internet resource
Schilling, Donald G. Lessons and Legacies: 2. Evanston, Ill: Northwestern Univ. Press, 1998.
Print.
Sherwin, Byron L, and Susan G. Ament. Encountering the Holocaust: An Interdisciplinary
Survey. Chicago: Impact Press, 1979. Print
Weiner, Anita. Expanding Historical Counsciousness: The Development of the Holocaust
Educational Foundation. Evanston, Ill: Northwestern University Press, 2003. Print.