For the last two weeks my English class read Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz; the novel chronicles an Italian Jewish man who was taken to the camps in 1944. Connecting with this novel are my last two posts focusing on WWII, more specifically the Nazi concentration camps. I have brought up the themes of fear and power and how they connect to the camps. I want to continue discussion on these themes and how they connect to the regression of man into beast. There is an assumption that man is better than animal, this connects with the idea that because man is civilized. There is often this dichotomy in the world about who (or what) is civilized versus who (or what) is not. Man versus beast is a dichotomy that comes to mind but more often it is man versus man. This other man is someone who deviates from the clean definition of American masculinity, anyone of color, non-Christian, non-heterosexual, poor, etc. On the civilized side of this dichotomy that is created are the Nazis and Aryans versus the other, the supposed animal.
As we spoke in class today about how was it possible for the Nazi’s to value the work of the Jewish man in something like Chemistry, but then treat him less the human beings all the same? I think this connects to the concentration camps directly. I say this because working in the same laboratory and earning the same wages with a Jewish man puts him on a Nazi’s level, it would be harder to say that Jews are lesser beings if they are on the same level. The concentration camps remove all levels the Jewish man ever thought about being on. With this removal what is left for a man who is, more often than not, defined by his status in the world? Levi puts it this way…
“That precisely because the Lager was a great machine to reduce us to beasts, we must not become beasts (p. 41).”
The Lager, or concentration camp, is a place that the Nazi strip a person of any kind of human quality and try to reduce a man into an inferior being; self-justifying their hate. The men in the concentration camp were forced to give up their morals and normal ideal about a civilized world inside the barbed wire.
“Many social habits and instincts are reduced to silence (p. 87).”
This is a world that has been created for that reason; to have no connections a world that is familiar and safe.
Yet, who is the animal in this scenario, the product of the machine or its maker? The Nazi’s actively and systematically create these men; while slaughtering millions of others. I can see a modern day connection with the systematic creation of beasts in dog fighting; again the assumption that men are better than animals. In semi-recent news Atlanta Falcon, Michael Vick was charged with animal cruelty for his extensive dog fighting ring. He created dogs that would fight, fight for their survival. Much like the men in the Lager they must fight against all the other men to survive. Yet, if neither one had been forced to fight for survival than neither one would not have been degraded and treated sadistically.
I can not see the difference of man verses beast. I only see living beings.
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October 28, 2009 at 4:59 AM
Tom Degan
THE FOLLOWING IS A LETTER THAT ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST TRACY MURPHY WROTE TO THE CITY GOVERNMENT OF BUFFALO, NY:
Dear Mayor Brown and the Common Council of Buffalo,
The Ringling Circus has left town, and I am here dumbfounded as to why we allow a business to perform in Buffalo that is clearly abusive to Asian elephants, an endangered species, as well as many other exotic and domestic animals.
The inhumane treatment toward animals with whips, blow torches and bull hooks has been documented for years by many animal welfare agencies. Currently there is a Federal lawsuit against Ringling for illegal abusive treatment toward a protected endangered species, the elephants.
The animals are clearly kept in bondage and suffer greatly every day of their lives. Why cannot we reach into our sense of common decency and ban these circuses with animals? I ask all of you this question and so do many others: http://wnymedia.net/wnymedia/brianzabka/2009/10/peta-protests-the-circus/
I care deeply for these elephants, as well as all the animals that are exploited in these circuses. I am not ashamed to stand up for every one of them, and if it takes standing on the street corners of Buffalo to collect thousands of petition signatures to help these animals, I will peacefully and proudly do that. I cannot think of any other way I would want to spend the rest of my life.
As Martin Luther King, Jr said, “One day the absurdity of the almost universal human belief in the slavery of other animals will be palpable. We shall then have discovered our souls and become worthier of sharing this planet with them. Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Let freedom ring for these animals. Let freedom ring.
Sincerely,
Tracy Murphy
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
October 28, 2009 at 9:28 AM
olsonre
I believe you are very correct in saying that the concentration camps were a way of creating beasts to justify Nazi hatred for other races. The photos that you use here are very moving and I cannot begin to explain how horrific it is to think that Nazis treated Jews worse than most people treat their pets. The abuse that these people had gone through is unable to be compared to any other event in recent history. The systematic killing of this ethnic group is one of the areas in history that I am really interested in because of the psychology behind it. The brainwashing of Germans and other Europeans to help in the cause and the pictures of the children marching with the Reich makes me wonder if those people involved didn’t really know what they were taking part in. The film “The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas” is moving in this same sort of way. The main character is a little boy that is the son on a SS officer. He lives within a mile of a a concentration camp and befriends a boy on the other side of the fence. His befriending that little boy is as much proof as I need that hate is taught and love is natural. Even growing up in the hands of an SS officer did not change the fact that the little boy grew to love his Jewish friend. The same is true for animals. They are taught to be mean which is why we have so many problems with dogs attacking “unexpectedly.”
October 28, 2009 at 7:29 PM
winegarl
The photos that you included in this post are extremely powerful! The picture of the dog reminds me of the animal rights commericials that are on television so frequently. We find it so unbelievable that people could treat their animals in this way; abused, starving, ill, and fighting for their lives. It is very true that inmates in the concentration camps were treated just as badly and in many cases even worse than these animals. They were hearded like cattle to and from work, they were starved, beaten, struggling to fight off disease, and fighting for their lives just like these animals. I think that people in the concentration camps were not only treated like animals but they also had to treat each other in an animalistic way in some cases in order to survive. Individuals had to think only of themselves if they wished to avoid the gas chambers. As Primo Levi indicates in his writing, the people had to plot and use every possible resource that they had in order to survive. Your comparison is very strong here!
October 28, 2009 at 9:24 PM
waldronl
As we read Primo Levi’s book and all the books and documentaries we’ve discussed in class it is hard to believe that there was a time in history where people were treating others in such an awful and cruel manner. It is especially difficult to think that there was no reason for this treatment. Like you pointed out in your post and like we talked about in class, pre-concentration camp, they were all equals. Both the nazi and the Jews were all created the same way, educated the same way, and they all even breathe the same air. Yet somehow the Jews were nothing to them but beasts, and they treated them that way. It’s sad that they felt no remorse and continued to treat the jewish people that way. It is also very sad that some individuals feel that this behavior is acceptable, and treat their animals this way. My husband and I have 2 dogs and they are like our kids! To see the photos and hear that people are still treating other living breathing creatures like this is disgusting!
October 28, 2009 at 11:03 PM
wesnile5200
With describing the makers of these horrible camps as the true beasts you bring up a very important and inciteful view into what truely makes up a man. For the most part people have believed that the jews were turned into monsters inside those camps, they were reduced to fighting, stealing, filthy, dirty animals, but I agree that they were not the true beasts. What kind of person in good contiousness force people to become like that, who could live with themselves knowing that they did that to another organism, no matter how superior they feel that they are compared to the other person. Only a monster, a true beast could do that to a person, unceremoniously kill millions, while exploiting those that are still alive in order to further a war and help destroy those that they share their religious beliefs with. As for the training and use of dogs inside the fighting rings, I could not think of a better example of an event now that parallels what happened durring WWII. The only thing is, this has happened before, is happening now, and will undoubtedly happen again in the future, I just dont understand why such violence can exist in any world, between any organisms.
October 29, 2009 at 11:25 AM
lenards18
I liked the question you proposed near the end of your post. “Yet, who is the animal in this scenario, the product of the machine or its maker?” It really got me thinking, and it can go both ways. Of course, you can see the product of the machine, the Jews, as the animal because the Nazis have taken away almost every single right the Jews had as humans. They were beaten, yelled at, starved, and even sometimes killed when they didn’t listen or understand. When they were too weak to work they were killed, kind of like how a farmer must put down an injured horse to end its suffering. But you can also say that the machine’s maker, the Nazis, were also the animals. They were the ones degrading and dehumanizing the prisoners in the concentration camp. Their acts during the Holocaust were not worthy nor could be considered acts of human beings. You could even say that they were both animals at the same time, of course instead of animals I would turn to the word ‘monsters’ to describe the Nazis .I feel like your question would have been a great discussion question for class. I wonder what everyone else would have thought on the topic.
November 28, 2009 at 12:33 AM
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