The Genocidal Mind

by Klein, Dennis B.; Libowitz, Richard; Littell, Marcia Sachs; Steeley, Sharon

• ISBN13: 9781557788535
• ISBN10: 1557788537
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-03-05
• Publisher: Atlas Books

Summary

These are selected papers from the 32nd annual Scholars' Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches held in 2002 at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. This book examines mass murder in the 20th century and explains how the elements of a genocidal mind can be perceived in behavior, law, religion, philosophy, literature, and psychology. It outlines ways to exercise vigilance in all of these cultural arenas and develop an early warning system that can help prevent societies from going over the boundary from civility to genocide."If we wish to discern the genocidal mentality, we must reckon not only with increased callousness of the killers but also with their misguided conviction that they were engaged in something advantageous to humanity."-Paul Vincent, Director of the Cohen Center of Holocaust Studies, Keene State College, New Hampshire"A brief look at some characteristic Nazi legislation, institutions, legal concepts and professional legal personnel offer a paradigm of how the rule of law can be degraded, leaving at best a veneer of legal form and process." -Alan S. Rosenbaum, Professor of Philosophy, Cleveland State University"Emphasizing the self's autonomy, authenticity, and resolve, the thinking that arose in the German Enlightenment and contributed to the Holocaust follows a clear line of development from Kant to Heidegger."-David Patterson, Bornblum Chair in Judaic Studies, University of Memphis, Tennessee>

Table of Contents

Introduction	xiii
GENOCIDE AND OUR TIMES
CHAPTER 1 Mass Murder and the Holocaust in the Twentieth Century	1	(38)
Steven T. Katz
CHAPTER 2 The Genocidal Mind: In Search of a Definition	39	(22)
Paul Vincent
CHAPTER 3 Early Warning: Perverting the Lessons of the Holocaust—The Protocols of the World Conference Against Racism	61	(8)
Shimon Samuels
CHAPTER 4 Canada Attempts to Curb Hate Mail: The Lessons of the Zündel Case	69	(12)
Frederick M. Schweitzer
CHAPTER 5 The Nazification of the German Legal System: Some Lessons for Modern Constitutionalism	81	(24)
Alan S. Rosenbaum
CHAPTER 6 The Complicity of Modern Philosophy in the Extermination of the Jews	105	(20)
David Patterson
CHAPTER 7 Adorno and Lifton: Subjectivity and the Psychology of Genocide	125	(14)
Gary A. Mullen
GENOCIDE AND RELIGION
CHAPTER 8 Elite Catholic Isolationism in the United States: Impediment or Failure in the Fight Against Nazi Genocide?	139	(18)
Patrick J. Hayes
CHAPTER 9 Christian Hope as a Factor in How Protestants Followed Hitler	157	(18)
Drew A. Parsons
CHAPTER 10 Jewish-Christian Dialogue in Light of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Understanding of Jews and Judaism	175	(10)
Renate Wind
CHAPTER 11 Resisting or Defending the Faith? Clerical Responses to the National Socialist State	185	(14)
Kevin Spicer
GENOCIDE AND CULTURE
CHAPTER 12 Re-Reading Bernhard Schlink's The Reader as a Mirror of Germany's Holocaust Memory	199	(26)
Karin Doerr
CHAPTER 13 Literary Representations of the 1915 Genocide of Armenians: An Important Topical Genre Continuing in the New Millennium	225	(20)
Rubina Peroomian
CHAPTER 14 Testimony from the Ashes: Final Words from Auschwitz-Birkenau Sonderkommado	245	(18)
Susan L. Pentlin
CHAPTER 15 Imre Kormos: Unknown Hero of the Hungarian Jewish Rescue and Resistance	263	(14)
George S. Pick
CHAPTER 16 The German Resistance to Hitler and he Jews: The Case of Carl Goerdeler	277	(16)
Peter Hoffmann
REFLECTIONS
CHAPTER 17 Lessons of the Holocaust: The Early Warning System	293	(8)
Franklin H. Littell
CHAPTER 18 Reflections on the Consideration of the Holocaust in American Life	301	(20)
Michael Berenbaum
Contributors	321