holocaust-bureaucracy (luddite-essay related)

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

 "before the 20th century and its technology a destructive mind could not even 
 in fantasy play with the thought the nazis put into practice. the 
 administrative officer from former centuries did not have the tools. he did not 
 have today's telecommunications; he did not dispose of modern rapid fire 
 weapons and quick effective poison gas. the bureaucrat of tomorrow will not 
 have those problems; already by now he's better equipped than the german nazis 
 ever were. killing is much easier than in former times. modern bureaucracy has 
 the possibilities and the institutions to put planed measures, for instance 
 reasonable mass killings, quickly and effective into practice. suchs means do 
 not only lead to a higher number of victims, they also require a higher degree 
 of specialization, and with this division of labor the moral responsibility  
 is also splitted among the participants. the perpetrator can now kill his 
 victims without touching them, without hearing them, without seeing them. he 
 can be sure of his success and feel protected from the results. nowhere this 
 constantly growing capacity of extermination can be stopped."

 --- raul hilberg: the destruction of european jews [1961] ---


                      (own re-translation from page 804 of the german edition)


kfl